On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:46:06 -0700, cpvh wrote:

snip


Anyways, the question!

At one point the BT support droid said "well in that case, Connectfree
will have to provide you with your own smtp server" Which got me to
thinging (OK, three questions)

1. Would running our own smtp server on one of our XP workstations
protect us from any further stupidity on the part of BT.

2. Would it just work with BT's network without any configuration on
their part, or would it open up another can of worms WRT getting it
verified or whatever.

3. Would I have to get Connectfree or any other organisation to
reconfigure anything?

4. How difficult is it to set up an SMTP server?

5. If it's worth going ahead does anyone here have any recommendations
for a particular product (pref free, definately to run on XP (yes, I
know i'd be better off building a lunix box, but the management won't
allow any more boxes in the house (no, not even in the loft or the
shed))).

OK, 5 questions :+))

If you run your own SMTP server, apart from getting the software and
setting it up (and there are loads of products out there including
'sendmail' itself)

(1) I am assuming that you have problems both picking up and sending mail,
as you use the same SMTP server. Therefore you want to both receive and
send mail via your own SMTP server.

(2) Therefore you will have to register your own domain name (e.g.
mydomain.forme.net) and arrange for Domain Name Service (DNS) records to
point to your IP address so that other SMTP servers know where to send the
emails destined for you. Most won't accept emails from a server without an
IP addrress which can be checked via DNS). This also means you need a
fixed IP address (or have to register with a dynamic DNS service which
will update DNS each time you get a different IP address).

(3) Once you have got your domain name and you have your SMTP server up
and running any reasonable ISP should check your SMTP server to ensure
that it is not an open relay (i.e. allows other people to use your SMTP
server to relay email including SPAM) before opening port 25 (SMTP) for
incoming traffic to your IP address.

So, although it is 'doable' you will have quite a bit of communication
with people in support roles before it is all sorted.

Alternatively (as suggested elsewhere) just get a Gmail address - you can
configure Gmail to allow you to pick up your email via POP3 and send your
email to the Gmail server via secure SMTP (although I note that I am using
my ISPs' SMTP server for my Gmail accounts). Alternatively Gmail supports
IMAP4 which again should allow you to send and receive email via the Gmail
servers and totally ignore your ISPs' servers.

HTH

Dave R

P.S. you could always load VMWare onto your PC and the pre-configured
Ubuntu image, then run your Linux SMTP server within XP. Requires a
certain amount of memory and 'grunt' to work well, though.