home server questions

[chipw]

I have a home web/ftp server, and would like to expand it to be my email server as well. What I want to do is separae myself from having my site hosted by an ISP. I get my ip address from the phone company, verizon. I have my own domain registered and currently hosted by an isp. I have a new site running on my home web server and ftp as well, and that works great. I have done everything in the tutorial ISP-Server Setup - Ubuntu 5.10 (I figured that would cover just about everything I need).

How do I verify that email on this box works properly? Right now if I send a email to my account it goes to the ISP email server and I download it via POP. How do I know if I can do that with my own box? Is there a way to test it before changing the DNS numbers on my account at netsol.com (my registrar)?

I have www.wiegand.org registered. Should I also register ftp.wiegand.org and mail.wiegand.org?

thanks.
Chip

[Hans]

You need to register your domain at a Registar who give you full control over your domain.
Not every Provider gives you this control. You have to check this out, if not move your domain to another Registar where you have full control.

In the DNS-manager of that provider you have to make the settings for your domain.
It should be something like this:

Record type - Name - Contents:

A - *.yourdomain.tld -IP-address of your server.
MX 10 - yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
MX 20 - yourdomain.tld - relay.yourprovider.tld
CNAME - ftp.yourdomain.tld - yourdomain.tld
CNAME - smtp.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
CNAME - pop3.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
CNAME - www.yourdomain.tld - yourdomain.tld

To test your e-mailserver, first create a website within ISPConfig and create a (mail)user for that site.

Now go to your personal computer and configure your e-mailclient, like Outlook (Express).
For the pop3-server use the name pop3.yourdomain.tld as defined in the DNS-records of your Registar.
For the smtp-server use the name smtp.yourdomain.tld as defined in the DNS-records of your Registar.
(you can also use the IP-address of your server in stead)
Do not forget to enable TLS, if you use this.
You can use the mailaccount as defined in ISPConfig for the user.

I hope this article is helpful fo you.

Good luck!


Hans

[chipw]

Originally Posted by Hans

You need to register your domain at a Registar who give you full control over your domain.
Not every Provider gives you this control. You have to check this out, if not move your domain to another Registar where you have full control.

In the DNS-manager of that provider you have to make the settings for your domain.
It should be something like this:

Record type - Name - Contents:

A - *.yourdomain.tld -IP-address of your server.
MX 10 - yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
MX 20 - yourdomain.tld - relay.yourprovider.tld
CNAME - ftp.yourdomain.tld - yourdomain.tld
CNAME - smtp.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
CNAME - pop3.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
CNAME - www.yourdomain.tld - yourdomain.tld

To test your e-mailserver, first create a website within ISPConfig and create a (mail)user for that site.

Now go to your personal computer and configure your e-mailclient, like Outlook (Express).
For the pop3-server use the name pop3.yourdomain.tld as defined in the DNS-records of your Registar.
For the smtp-server use the name smtp.yourdomain.tld as defined in the DNS-records of your Registar.
(you can also use the IP-address of your server in stead)
Do not forget to enable TLS, if you use this.
You can use the mailaccount as defined in ISPConfig for the user.

I hope this article is helpful fo you.

Good luck!


Hans

Thanks for the info, one more question - In 'hostname.yourdomain.tld' do I change .tld to .org, for my domain (so it becomes www.wiegand.org)? Or leave it .tld (so it becomes www.wiegand.tld)?
--
Chip

[Hans]

Use www.wiegand.org.

.tld = short for Top Level Domain such as .de, .com, org or whatever. i use .tld as an example.

Hans

[chipw]

Originally Posted by Hans

You need to register your domain at a Registar who give you full control over your domain.

I have that ability. Right now it points to my ISP's dns servers. I can change it to the registrars servers easily enough. But I have a question - it will take 2 to 3 days to take effect, then the domain will point to my server in my house. Email will come to my house, IF the email server setup is correct. If it is not I won't know, except that we won't get any email, so what will happen to the email we may not get?
This is why I would like to test the server setup BEFORE making the DNS changes, if possible. We are in the process of buying some land in another state and cannot miss any emails from the agent in that other state. We will also be building a custom home on the land we are buying, so cannot miss any emails from the designer as well. We are also exchanging emails with the banks involved.
That is why it is very important that I test this to make sure it works before committing to a DNS change and possibly losing some email.

Is it possible to do such testing before making the DNS changes? Or am I overly concerned about nothing?
Regards,
Chip

Originally Posted by Hans

In the DNS-manager of that provider you have to make the settings for your domain.
It should be something like this:

Record type - Name - Contents:

A - *.yourdomain.tld -IP-address of your server.
MX 10 - yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
MX 20 - yourdomain.tld - relay.yourprovider.tld
CNAME - ftp.yourdomain.tld - yourdomain.tld
CNAME - smtp.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
CNAME - pop3.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
CNAME - www.yourdomain.tld - yourdomain.tld

To test your e-mailserver, first create a website within ISPConfig and create a (mail)user for that site.

Now go to your personal computer and configure your e-mailclient, like Outlook (Express).
For the pop3-server use the name pop3.yourdomain.tld as defined in the DNS-records of your Registar.
For the smtp-server use the name smtp.yourdomain.tld as defined in the DNS-records of your Registar.
(you can also use the IP-address of your server in stead)
Do not forget to enable TLS, if you use this.
You can use the mailaccount as defined in ISPConfig for the user.

I hope this article is helpful fo you.

Good luck!


Hans

[Hans]

You must have a A-record within your DNS-records like this:

A - *.yourdomain.tld -IP-address of your server.
MX10 - yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld

If the A-record within the DNS-records at your provider point to your server at home you can do this to test your mailserver:

In your e-mailclient like Outlook:

pop3 server: your IP address of your server at home
smtp server: your IP address

Note:
use the Internal IP-address of your server, if the server is part of a LAN behind a router.
if you use not a router and your IP-address of your server is the same as the public IP-address, you use that.

If you can send/receive e-mail via your e-mailclient then you can create the DNS records at your provider like this:

CNAME - smtp.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld
CNAME - pop3.yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld

When these CNAMES are active then you can do this within your e-mailclient:

pop3 server: pop3.mydomain.tld
smtp server: pop3.mydomain.tld

You do not have to worry about changing the CNAMES, as long as you have
this:

A - *.yourdomain.tld -IP-address of your server.
MX10 - yourdomain.tld - hostname.yourdomain.tld

Do not change these two, otherwise your server can not be reached anymore from outsite.


Hans