Edward Dekkers <edward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey there guys,
for years I've run fetchmail to grab mail from my isp in multidrop mode.
Now, my area is finally ADSL enabled. The ISP I'm going with gives out
free static IP addresses. I've also bought a domain name which is
currently parked.
I'm pretty sure I can get the sendmail part sorted, but DNS has me
confused. At the domain name site, I can put in two name server fields.
Originally I thought I could just run DNS here on my Linux box. But
apparently from what I understand of the reading I'm doing I'd need two
servers to do this.
Other readings I'm doing are telling me to use my ISP's DNS servers and
have them set up the records for me.
I've been doing *EXACTLY* this for quite a few years. Dan's advice will
get you started on DNS but you should probably take things slowly. Get
your DNS set up and check that you can "find yourself" from outside your
own network (e.g., go to someplace that provides public internet access
and make sure you can connect). Make sure your ISP allows you to run
your own servers. Many ISPs do not or require that you purchase a
business account in order to do so.
As another poster has pointed out, you are supposed to have more than
one DNS pointing to your network. The internet police will not swoop
down on you if you don't but your network disappears whenever your name
server is down. A quick reboot isn't usually a problem but you probably
ought to have some sort of backup available in case you have a hardware
failure that has your DNS down for a lengthy period of time. As an
example, my DNS box is also the primary server for my home network so I
set all of the drives up with Linux software RAID and then confirmed
that the box still functions if I remove a ribbon cable from any disk.
In addition, I have an old PIII/733 that I typically use for testing
that I can swap in if I have to.
Once you have your network "live" you can start messing with sendmail.
Make sure you disable relaying from outside your network. Getting a
basic configuration working isn't hard and it's really nice to be able
to control your own e-mail. The only problem I've run into is my ISP
still claims my IP address on a reverse look-up so there are a very few
places (spamhaus in particular) who won't accept e-mail from my domain.
Cheers,
Dave
--
Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
-- Ambrose Bierce
