Installing an e-Mail Server on Windows Home Server

[mikinho]

Original Article Link

Hi Pete, good guide on how to get mail flow but most users will run into issues even then.  The biggest being anit-spam and anti-virus mail flow mechanisms.

It is important for any user looking to setup an e-mail to try and understanding anti-spam and antivirus mail flow.  For instance, of the basic checks is that the mail server has a PTR/Reverse DNS record associated with it (and that it isn’t generic).  It is very rare that a home-level ISP will create a PTR record for customers.

There are some measures you can take though, for instance you can and should create a Sender Policy Record (SPF).  The SPF record is a simple TXT based DNS record which lets receiving e-mail servers know what addresses have rights to send mail on behalf of your domain.  A common example of SPF records is:

v=spf1 a mx include:aspmx.googlemail.com ~all
spf2.0/pra a mx include:aspmx.googlemail.com ~all

Both records say the same thing, that any server with a correspond A or MX is authorized to send e-mail on my behalf.  In addition to those from aspx.googlemail.com (Googe Apps e-mail servers).  In your example, using DynDNS Outgoing Mail Relay, the SPF record would be:

v=spf1 a mx include:outbound.mailhop.org ~all
spf2.0/pra a mx include:outbound.mailhop.org ~all

For more information I recommend reading [url=http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997242.aspx]Understanding Anti-Spam and Antivirus Mail Flow[/url] and [url=http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/]Sender ID Framework SPF Record Wizard[/url].

It truly amazes me how many companies have not heard of SPF records so the more home users who are educated on their use the better.

[Mike Garcen]

i was at the NEDMUG user group meeting where Pete presented this…and i think the one thing i walked away from is that 90% of people will (and should) never need to do this, as it’s not just a lot of work but there is cost associated to it!

Still a great guide, i had always wondered about the possibilities of doing so and was stunned at just how much is involved!

[pstagman]

@Mikinho – Thanks for the comments. At the NEDMUG meeting I talked about all the same points that you made. As Shady pointed out, I started the article by saying “It ain’t easy!” I probably should add a paragraph on “You’re going to run into problems here, here, here and here.”  🙂

The point of the article was that it’s Possible, here’s how.

BTW, Thanks for coming Mike!

–P

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