Setting up my own email server

[darren]

Over the 6 days, (28 Dec - 2 Jan) I have received 450 spam messages from my ntl account.

I do use spampal to mark spam so I can send it directly to my bin, and empty it on exit, however at 50 odd emails a day this takes a long time, so as I have a Linux server at home I want to set it up as my email server using a free DNS address. It also makes receiving email on my Pocket PC over GPRS very expensive and annoying.

I think the main cause of this is down to Ntlworld being very popular so spammers are using brute force methods to send the spam, or my email address has just ended up on the internet somewhere

I was wondering what software to use as an email server, something that will receive emails directly from senders and store it for me to collect from my laptop or pocket pc, but I'd also like to send email via this server as well.

I'd like to send and retrieve it where ever I am, on my LAN, a friends LAN, dialup or GPRS.

I think I remember ntl restricting the use of email ports, and sending email using different email accounts (but I think all ISPs do this), I suppose this will effect the ability to retrieve it from my server outside my LAN and to send email from it, or can I change the default ports

Does anyone have any thoughts about this, 450 emails in 6 days is a bit extreme really, and itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s been happening for a long time.

Thanks

Only 450 in 6 days ? I get more than that and hardly notice them, why does spamcop take so long I use popfile and it marks them instantly as they are downloaded - I process 90 to 100 e-mails in a minute or less.

I found forwarding everything to hotmail and/or gmail, sorted most of my spam problems - mailwasher sorted the rest

[Jon T]

The problem that your gonna have setting your own email server up, is that when you send mail through it, a lot of the recieving servers will reject it as it has come from a DHCP assigned IP address.

Jon

[MetaWraith]

Originally Posted by homealone

I found forwarding everything to hotmail and/or gmail, sorted most of my spam problems - mailwasher sorted the rest

Same here, forward to gmail, and have mailwasher interrogate headers, it deals with 50-100 in seconds.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by Jon T

The problem that your gonna have setting your own email server up, is that when you send mail through it, a lot of the recieving servers will reject it as it has come from a DHCP assigned IP address.

Jon

Jon makes a vital point here, if you are going to set up your own email server, make sure your SMTP server points to smtp.ntlworld.com. Because you are on a DHCP assigned IP address, the MX record for your IP range points to ntl's official email servers, any other mail server will be bounced, as most ISP's use RBL's (Real Time Black lists) that check to make sure the IP address sending the email is sending it through its official MX (Mail Transfer) service.

[darren]

Originally Posted by Toto

Jon makes a vital point here, if you are going to set up your own email server, make sure your SMTP server points to smtp.ntlworld.com. Because you are on a DHCP assigned IP address, the MX record for your IP range points to ntl's official email servers, any other mail server will be bounced, as most ISP's use RBL's (Real Time Black lists) that check to make sure the IP address sending the email is sending it through its official MX (Mail Transfer) service.

OK, does this mean that when I send email it will have my ntlworld email address, cause that would mean I would still get email through my ntl account so I'd still have to check it and wait while it downloads tons of spam which defeats the object of setting up an email server.

I'd like to note that it can take several attempts to download email as my wireless link between my Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 3B card and D-Link 614+ router is rubbish, the 50+ spam emails I get make this much worse, I also get a lot of web pages timing out and some never come up unless I use a wired link. Messenger refuses to log in half the time saying my username/password is wrong when it is correct cause its set to auto.

I've already had Acer test the card but I fear it is something to do with the router which is out of warrenty now. My other d-link card works fine, it always desplays the webpages and downloads email first time. </rant>

[Stuart]

darren: Try placing the router up high.. Preferably on the floor above if possible. They seem to work better up high..

[Toto]

Originally Posted by darren

OK, does this mean that when I send email it will have my ntlworld email address, cause that would mean I would still get email through my ntl account so I'd still have to check it and wait while it downloads tons of spam which defeats the object of setting up an email server.

I think I see what you are saying here. You want to set a mail server to help you deal with the spam you get into your ntlworld email address? OK, bit of a sledgehammer/walnut scenario, but a valid reason nonetheless.

I think you would need to sort out your wireless problem here first, then you may want to consider the email program you are using, as that can have a dramatic effect on how spam is dealt with,

As an example, I use Thunderbird as my email client, It has some excellent spam filters, and is not as "bulky" as the equivelant Microsoft mail program (Outlook Express).

Not sure if I am on the right track there Darren?

Bah, too early in the morning...............you have a linux box you want to use as a filter of sorts, again, you may not need to use a mail server program such as Fetchmail, but you may want to look at any program that can poll the ntlworld email server and flag up any emails as spam so that you can review them first, and possibly delete from the ntl servers before downloading them.

You could always use ntlworld webmail service, delete the spam first, then run your email program, that too can help.

[darren]

Originally Posted by scastle

darren: Try placing the router up high.. Preferably on the floor above if possible. They seem to work better up high..

Its about as high as it can get (2nd floor about 2 feet from the roof)

The thing is the other desktop works perfectly which is using a Dlink 520 PCI card, and my Pocket PC (DCF-660W card) signs into MSN Messenge more reliably.

I might try moving it to another room just to see if it makes a difference but I think its down to the different chipsets and the Dlinks none standard 22MB option (which is disabled along with 4x option - no idea what it does) these don't affect the 520 and 660W which don't support 22MB or 4x either.

Maybe a new none dlink router is called for? Shame really cause it has some great config options.

[Tricky]

This thread is going in two directions (One for Hardware and one for own mail) ...

With regards the mailserver I run my own, via hmailserver (www.hmailserver.com) a windows utility that stores mail on my local machine as Exchange would for instance. I collect mail from my hosted (I-WEB) account using a utility called EFS (www.chimeracomputing.com).

As stated above by Toto the mail will need to route via a valid server or most mailservers will bin you off as being a spammer which means you should get an alternative address (hosting) you can send from your own machine as someone@domain.com if you have the mx records of domain.com set up to your hosted domain (which is why I use EFS to pull my mail from the server to the local server).

Give me a shout if you want any advice (as I set mine up again last night!)

[darren]

Thanks Tricky I may take you up on your advise when I get around to it, I'm rather busy with a Proliant server atm.

Anyway to update on my wireless problems, yesterday a new router arrived that I'm installing at a friends house, its a D-Link 624+ G ethernet router.

I decided just for the hell of it to dasiy chain it off my 614+ via a LAN port and connect my laptop over wifi, I got good results from it, email came down in seconds, pages downloaded without time outs, so I suspected the connection between my laptops card and my 614+ router to be the cause of my probems.

The weird thing is after I disconnected it to confirm my thoughts, the connection between my 614+ and laptop has improved to the same level, even without the other router turned on or plugged in. Even today my email and browsing are perfect, I'm not sure what the problem was (or is) anymore, I'm just hoping it stays like this . Today is the first time I've been able to download 25 emails in one go, so fast, over my wireless for a while.

Maybe the router knew what I was thinking and started to behave I've switched between other wifi networks before (theres an open G one across the road) and this has never happened before.