Can Mail Servers Work With Dynamic IPs? 11
rpandya asks: "I'm considered switching from DSL to Sprint ION but they don't yet provide static IPs. Now I think I should register my domain with granitecanyon.com and dyndns.org, and host my own mail & Web service, instead. I'm switching my main home server from NT to Linux, and it's already behind a SonicWall firewall with NAT, so it's pretty reliable and secure. However, I'm concerned that the dynamic IP issues might cause some hiccups in mail service. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has tried something like this, or has any thoughts on how well it would work."
Spam filtering (Score:1)
Re:I do just that (Score:1)
the problem that I'm having is that the box dosen't get a new address when the old one expires. They used to let me keep the same address for weeks, but now it will only stay up for a few days at a time. Did you have to do anything special to get yours working properly? I think there's problems with the dhcp server I get my address from, because after the lease expires, it takes at least a day for me to be able to get a new address. I've tried all kinds of reboots, commandline options, about everything i can think of. I was using pump before, but I've switched to dhcpcd instead since its been more usable for me.
as a side question, is there a linux rr page that might have some info for me?
-earl
I do just that (Score:1)
I run my own mail server, soon to be a web, news, quake, etc. server off of a Roadrunner cable modem connection with a dynamic IP.
I use dynamic DNS service from tzo.com [www.tzo.com], and their service has been pretty much configure-and-forget -- in other words, great for non-super-sysadmins like me. They don't use an update program like some other services, but instead, a URL. To update your dynamic DNS redirection, you point a browser to the URL and blammo, it's done. I took their simple scripts and wrote my own that send in an update whenever my DHCP lease is refreshed. My scripts pass the proper URL to lynx in batch mode and dump the output to a log file. Not hard at all.
You can get groovyname.sillydomain.tld kind of service or myowndomain.tld service. I have the second. They claim to have five (?) servers, all in different time zones using different colocation. I haven't experienced a problem with it.
Re:Your name (Score:1)
Re:Good idea (Score:1)
Running services from a dynamic IP works fine. I have Pacific Bell DSL and I got it just after they stopped doing single static IPs, so I got stuck with a dynamic.
I use qmail for mail and apache with mod_ssl for web service [shitbag.com]. (Yes, that's really my domain name.) I have several NameVirtualHosts defined for apache (my home page [shitbag.com] is the same machine), so I have to restart apache whenever I get a new IP. No big deal. I have my domain name pointing to a friends nameserver. The nameserver is updated whenever I get a new IP using Bind 8's dynamic updating features and public key authentication. I havn't had any problems so far.
If you don't have a friend that runs a nameserver, I also have it update my dyndns.org [dyndns.org] entry and that doesn't seem to have any problems either. All in all, I'm happy with it, and with Bind 8's dynamic updating, having a static IP isn't so crucial any more.
--Rich
Re:What happens to your old IP, though? (Score:1)
--Rich
Re:Good idea (Score:1)
Re:Your name (Score:2)
For about the next hour I sat in my room Singing "Secret Asian Man".
I'm just waiting for the Dr. Demento or Weird Al version of that song.
LK
Re:Spam filtering (Score:2)
The other way to handle this is set your mail server up to always relay through your ISP/DSL provider. To the ISP, your mail server will be like any other customer and the message will be sent on to its destination by the ISP's server which has a static IP and is trusted.
Still, what's the point? There are hosting companies that will do it for free, if you want to put up with some advertising... Then again, I do a lot of things that are pointless, just because I can...
Good idea (Score:2)
This is probably the way to go, for a few reasons:
You can get/write scripts that will tell your daemons what their hostname/IP is (the ones that need to know -- sendmail probably, maybe Apache) as you change the address.
Plus, running your own servers is inherantly more satisfying. Knowing that you have control over (almost) all aspects of your services can be a pretty, albeit scary, proposition.
Cthulhu for President! [cthulhu.org]