Recipe 20.6. Receiving Internet Mail

20.6.1 Problem

Your nice new mail server is ready to go to work—how do you make it receive Internet mail?

20.6.2 Solution

You need three things: a static IP, a registered domain name, and DNS records pointing the world to your mail server. In your DNS configuration you need an A record for the server IP, and an MX record for the mail server. This is what BIND entries look like:

$ORIGIN tuxcomputing.com.

windbag      A     10.11.12.23

mx           10    windbag

djbdns entries look like this:

+www.tuxcomputing.com:10.11.12.23

@windbag.tuxcomputing.com:10.11.12.23:a

See Chapter 24 for more on DNS.

20.6.3 Discussion

There are many ways to manage DNS. Your ISP can do it, or you can use third-party DNS services such as Dyndns.org or your domain name registrar. You can also run your own public DNS server, and arrange with trusted friends to exchange secondaries.

20.6.4 See Also

• Chapter 24

• The Postfix book (/usr/share/doc/postfix/html/index.html)