MX Records

[DanJar]

Hey all...

Im looking at deploying a Zimbra server soon for my home office and am just trying to nut a few things out before I do so & would very much appreciate any perspective that can be given on my current case...

I have a registered domain name, I have a webhost for said domain name which collects email & I usually login using either Outlook, my phone or webmail to access my domains IMAP email accounts..

Now to get Zimbra setup, it is going to need MX records pointing to my server box if I am not mistaken...

Desirably I still want to have access to my webhosts webmail that it collects for me (in the rare occurance that my home internet is down, or the server is offline for whatever reason).

To complicate things further, I do not have a static IP address, but I do use a dynamic DNS so xxxx.no-ip.com resolves to being my home server (with port forwarding setup to allow http & a few other ports to be accessed etc).

So my theory which I am wondering if it can be confirmed (or my bubble burst :P), is that I can set a custom MX record with my domain provider, to send my mail to both my webhost (through the existing MX records) as well as my home mail.xxxxxxx.no-ip.com dynamic address? Am I right? or am I going to kill my email delivery

Kind Regards

-=DanJar=-

[phoenix]

It's perfectly possible to use a dynamic IP for hosting a mail server. The only thing you should be aware of is that you may get on a blacklist and/or some mailserver refuse to accept mail from a 'domestic' or dynamic IP (most notably, it's a problem with AOL email servers). I'd suggest you investigate using a Dynamic IP hosting server which will give you a backup mail server if yours is off-line, I use easydns.com and their mail server will queue mail for up-to five days if my server is unavailable. I believe that dyndns.org also has a similar service, others may have their favourites and google should provide a good list for you.

[DanJar]

Thanks. I hadnt considered the blacklisting side of things..

I guess its something I will need to weigh up. I think I might get it all working (which may be a battle in itself) then see how frequenty I get bounce backs for dynamic IP... If its not that often then I will keep it as is, as I can still always send email through my hosts webmail. Else I will re-evaluate if its too annoying

Thankyou for your perspective on things..

[phoenix]

It's not likely you will get on a blacklist, it's just a possibility. I ran an Exchange server for four years on a dynamic IP without problems. I think a few forum members also run form a dynamic IP, I guess the trick is not to be a spammer. Good luck and any problems you know where we are.

[bradb21]

I would consider it more likely than unlikely that you will get blacklisted and will have problems emailing people from a dynamic ip subnet. Seems like a lot o BL's have been adding a lot of dynamic subnets to the BL's lately. I also don't know if you would get reject notices back from people you email. I know if you emailed me, you email would end up in my quarantine. My anti-spam appliance and most others don't waste bandwidth sending reject notices back to spammers, as most are fake return addresses anyway.

I would check your ip with a blacklist checker weekly to monitor the situation. mxtoolbox.com has a nice service for this. They even have a free sign up service that will email you if your IP address ends up on a blacklist. If you do end up on a blacklist you will probably have problems getting off it. You might also have problems with reverse lookups not resolving to what your server is claiming is your hostname, and it's doubtful you will convince your ISP to set the reverse lookup correctly when you have dynamic service. Why not just do it correctly, and get a static address?