Anyone know anything about hosting my own email address ?

Question

hi
im migrating my broadband to a new ISP but they dont host emails - they said i could host my own email -
does anyone know anything about how to do this and also how to do this on my mac ?
sorry - a bit clueless on this issue
thanks
tzz

Answer 1

Or, you could actually run your own mailserver. I run a 5-account mail server for immediate family members, three of which are grown adults no longer living at my home. To do this, I got an inexpensive GUI application for the Postfix that is already built-in to your Mac. An outfit called cutedgesystems.com sells one for I think about $25-$30 named Mail Serve Pro. Their help files (on their website) are pretty decent for a very basic primer.
You'll need to have your own server domain name. I went ahead and got my own free domain name through dyndns.com. They have a piece of software that goes on your computer so that every time your ISP changes your WAN IPA on you, it reports the change back to the dyndns servers, so you (and other smtp servers) can always find your machine by host name.
I also bought a paid service of theirs called mailhop relay. It sets them (dyndns) up as a mail transfer agent, so whenever anyone sends mail to any account on your server, it goes to them first to be virus scanned and spam assassinated with black hole lists, whitelists and blacklists. That really cuts down on the spam hitting your server and using up your (likely quite limited as compared to the big boys) bandwidth because it gets stopped upstream. That costs about $40/yr. You'll have to check their website for pricing to make sure.
I also got a service from them called mailhop outbound. It's like $10/yr for the lowest tier of service (150 outbound "relays" (sum of messages times recipients per message) per day). Now, while you could send an unlimited number of emails directly off your server and not bother with this service, if you have a dynamic IP address, you will find that outfits like roadrunner.com block email coming from servers that have a dynamic IP address. They equate dynamic IPAs to spammers. Unfortunate, but that's the way it is. So mailhop outbound relays all outbound mail from your server to dyndns, so the likes of roadrunner will accept messages from accounts on your mail server.
Security update 2008-007, at least on Leopard, broke my mail server. Can't speak to the latest security update for Tiger. That update added a line to /etc/postfix/main.cf that says "inet_interfaces = localhost". You'll have to comment that line out (# as first character in line). You'll need to remember that future OS updates or security updates may reintroduce that line.
You'll need to open SMTP in System Prefs so mail can be received from other smtp servers and so authorized users on remote computers can send mail through your server, and either IMAPS or POPS, in System Preferences, if you will allow roaming computers to receive mail through your server. You'll need to port forward those same ports through your home router to your computer.
Yes, it can be a bit of work to set up and maintain. And you need to be careful and vigilant against unauthorized use and hacking. So you'll get paranoid and start installing network intrusion detection and enforcing other draconian security measures (as well you should). And the computer needs to be left on ideally 24 hr/day, and although the screen may sleep, and the hard drive may sleep when possible, your CPU can never sleep.
So, after all that, that $2/mo domain hosting, or just getting a free AOL account, may not be such a bad idea after all...the above approach costs you about $4.25/mo and you have to maintain it.