DNS, Domain name and E-mails

[si-skyline]

Hello there,

I am wanting to set up a E-mail server for my new business idea. currently im using a "gmail" account and think it would be more professional to have a "saveourstuff"

Currently I have two domain name with Godaddy one being a couk and the other being a com

Also I have a web hosting with them but not a E-mail account.

I was wondering if i can set up a small E-mail server at my home and use the domain name with it.. I dont know much about DNS

I have set up web servers and other services before so I know about forwarding and other stuffs to get it open.

I'm mainly trying to be tight and same some money as the E-mail service with godaddy was a little expensive for me at the moment

Thank you for any help,
Simon

[Leo-InstallingIT]

Hi

You could set on up at home, but I wouldn't really advise it. Do you have a static IP address there?

Standard email hosting is very cheap these days. I would be surprised if your web hosting didn't include some email hosting. If it doesn't and you only need one address I would be happy to set on up for you.

I hope this helps,
Many Thanks

Leo

[david64]

Yes, you can setup up at home, but as mentioned above you could do with a static IP, which you can get from BT. However, unless you have good computer skills, you will probably struggle to set it up.

For Linux, I'd recommend using DJBDNS as a server. There is a good guide for it here:

http://www.djbdnsrocks.org/

And Postfix and Dovecot for your email server:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Postfix

For Windows, I'd recommend switching to Linux :p unless you want to be bled dry with Microsoft licencing.

[si-skyline]

Thank you both for replying :)

I understand it might not be easy to set up, to be honest I never have done one because I heard horrid things about people hi-jacking the servers and it being used as a spam node.

When including an E-Mail server with the domain and web services. It seems rather pricey for what I was adding.

I'm a big windows fanboy myself, I know most of the in's and out's about the operating systems. I have been learning linux on and off for about 3 years now and that would be a more helpful solution to keep all business costs down. I am aiming for when my system is deployed that it will be using a linux distro on its back.

The only problem with using linux is that I'm not the best at the moment and wouldn't really know how to fix something if it went wrong

Thanks again,
Simon

[Leo-InstallingIT]

Hi

Well if you don't have email included with your package then if you have a static IP address at home you could set up your own server but it means you will have to deal with all the maintenance etc (which to be honest isn't that much).

If you want to keep the costs down initially, I would be more than happy to set you up an email address on your domain for free.

I hope this helps,
Many Thanks

Leo

[david64]

The only problem with using linux is that I'm not the best at the moment and wouldn't really know how to fix something if it went wrong

Installing a DNS server is quite technical. However, installing an email server on nooby versions of Linux is really easy. I've had mine up for 6 months and not had a single issue with it. So long as you don't go meddling or get attacked you shouldn't have any issues. You can always remove and reinstall if it goes wrong.

From my expirience, linux servers are much more reliable. At my old company the server went out quite regularly, which often meant that no one could work as the only person who knew about Windows servers was often out. On the other hand, I know someone who has a Linux dedicated that has had 100% uptime for over a year and has had a local Linux network that hasn't gone down in over two years.

On top of that, you don't really have to worry about viruses on Linux. They are extremly uncommon.

[MH-Nick]

You mentioned "to keep all business costs down". If your business relys on email (which most businesses do) I certainly wouldn't suggest hosting it yourself. There are so many little issues that might crop up, for example: security of the server, network status (if your ISP goes down, you have no redundancy), service monitoring (are you going to wake up at 4am to fix your mail server? Don't think so), technical knowledge of server, are you 100% competent? .

End of the day its not worth it. It only costs a few quid a month for a shared mail server.

[MartCactus]

Hello there,

I am wanting to set up a E-mail server for my new business idea. currently im using a "gmail" account and think it would be more professional to have a "saveourstuff"

Currently I have two domain name with Godaddy one being a couk and the other being a com



Google for "gmail for organizations"

You can use gmail, but run it using your own domain name. Its a great system, if a little tricky to setup initially

1) gmail is the best solution I've found to filtering out spam
2) you can still use pop/smtp to use thunderbird, outlook or other email package. Messages remain online even when you've downloaded them, so you can ensure you always have a backup of every mail online (with great searching). I prefer to use thunderbird as the pure web interface of gmail doesn't let you use folders etc, which I find a bit hard to handle.
3) gmail gives you about 7 gigs of space for email, in 2 years I'm not even to 25% of capacity
4) its free!

[Recover My Image]

You can get free web mail and hosting here (http://www.000webhost.com/106227.html) I use it its great.

1500 MB of Disk Space, 100 GB Bandwidth
- Host your own domain (http://www.yourdomain.com)
- cPanel Powered Hosting (you will love it)
- Over 500 website templates ready to download
- Easy to use website builder
- Free POP3 Email Box with Webmail access
- FTP and Web based File Manager
- PHP, MySQL, Perl, CGI, Ruby.
- And many more

[si-skyline]

Thank you all for your suggestions :) I will take them all into consideration. currently I'm away at the moment and not at my home address. Shall be back soon and give some of your solutions a go.

Thanks for you time :)
simon

[si-skyline]

Hi everyone,

Thank you all again for posting here, while at home I found out that godaddy give away free emailing accounts with their domain and hosting packages. So I managed to set up a new E-mail address called Information[AT]saveourstuff.co.uk what now looks ten times more professional.

I also got outlook working with it too so now I have a copy of E-mails come directly to my laptop :)
With this package I have I get to send 250 E-mails per month. I am wanting to know if that seems reasonable or will I quickly out grow it if I’m contacting customers and sending professional E-mails

[justintime]

250 emails a month? its probably to stop people sending spam but its only about 12 emails per working day.

I provide hosting for as little as £35 a year per website. This includes emails and you would not be restricted to how many you send.

A co uk address can be transferred in free, a com or net would be around £15.

[si-skyline]

Yeah I guess.. I think you can't really grumble at it being free.


At the moment it will only be used for promotional E-mails and sending questionnaires.

Thank you for your offer, it will be a option I'd consider later down the line :)