Looking to set up an email server

[Doogee]

Hiya again.

I was wondering how i can set up an email server that goes to the world wide interweb using Slackware Linux 9.1. Ummm, I dont really even know the basics of what i could do to make my own @doogee.kicks-ass.org (my DynDNS server) email adresses, so could anyone give me some starting points?

[Lord C]

Buy the domain name (www.123reg.co.uk)
Point to DNS to your IP in the domain's CP.
Setup a DNS Server in Linux.

Basics to what your doing.
I cant be more specific as i have never used Slackware :/

[Void Main]

Well, the secret is to have a mail server (sendmail or equivalent) running and listening on port 25. It would be much better if this were running on a server with a static IP address but it is not necessary. You must create an MX (mail exchanger) record in your dyndns account that points to the IP address of your mail server if your mail service runs on a server at an address other than what doogee.kicks-ass.net points to. Any message addressed to "someuser@doogee.kicks-ass.net" will go to the IP address in the MX record.

Dynamic address ranges are commonly blocked by ISPs (at least for sending mail from them) because spam commonly comes from them, that shouldn't really effect receiving mail on them though. Another reason that I believe is valid for providers to block incoming port 25 to their dynamic addresses is if people do not have an automated way to update their DNS records. Someone else gets your IP address and you don't update your records they are going to have servers attempting to send your mail to their addresses. Also, many providers block port 25 so people can't receive mail on their dynamic hosts (my provider is one of these). Also probably 50% of ISPs block mail coming from my dynamic address just because it is coming from a dynamic address. Again, spam virus infected Windows machines ruined it for me. When someone registers on this site many will not get the automated email (so I send it to them manually). They may also not get email if they set a "watch" on a forum. If they don't it's because their provider is blocking my dynamic address. Yes, I could configure sendmail to forward the mail through one of my statically addressed sendmail servers but I don't want to do that for this site.

Now, the sendmail service must also be configured to accept mail for doogee.kicks-ass.net so you can't just point your MX record to any server that you do not have control over.

[Doogee]

hmm, i didnt realise there'd be such a large complication, bugger.

[Void Main]

Well, it's not really complicated, at least it probably sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. Fire up sendmail and try and send a message to root@doogee.kicks-ass.net from your existing email account and see if it ends up in root's mailbox on your server. If it bounces, look closely at the error message. Also, I can check and see if I can telnet to your port 25 to see if your provider is blocking it.