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Paul

Hi

I am not to sure how to explain this, as I don't know much
on DNS stuff. What I am trying to do is setup an Exchange
2000 server at home for study purposes.

What I have done is setup a computer with AD and AD
integrated DNS with the SOA record as mydomain.com and
Exchange Svr all patched and all on one computer as I only
have the one. I know this will be insecure but it's only a
play machine so it's not too important to me.

At home I connect to the Internet via a cable modem. So I
get a private IP address given to me dynamically that I
have had for months now and my computer get a internal
address of 192.168.*.* via DHCP

I have bought a domain name and I wanted to set it up so
that I could run my own mailserver.

So what I needed to know was, is this possible. I know I
need to have a MX record on my DNS server pointing to my
internal address but I will need another MX record on a
public DNS server that will point to me?

I am sorry if this makes no sense and I have just wrote a
load of rubbish. If so could you suggest how I would setup
an Exchange server at home with the cable modem or fill me
in with a few points I may have missed.

If you need more info on anything then just post me a
message

Thanks in advance for any help

Paul
 
In
Paul said:
Hi

I am not to sure how to explain this, as I don't know much
on DNS stuff. What I am trying to do is setup an Exchange
2000 server at home for study purposes.

What I have done is setup a computer with AD and AD
integrated DNS with the SOA record as mydomain.com and
Exchange Svr all patched and all on one computer as I only
have the one. I know this will be insecure but it's only a
play machine so it's not too important to me.

At home I connect to the Internet via a cable modem. So I
get a private IP address given to me dynamically that I
have had for months now and my computer get a internal
address of 192.168.*.* via DHCP

I have bought a domain name and I wanted to set it up so
that I could run my own mailserver.

So what I needed to know was, is this possible. I know I
need to have a MX record on my DNS server pointing to my
internal address but I will need another MX record on a
public DNS server that will point to me?
Click to expand...

No you do not need an internal MX record, MX records are queried by other
mail servers to route mail to the correct mail server.

Even if you had an internal MX record would good would it do if it does not
resolve to a routable address.
I am sorry if this makes no sense and I have just wrote a
load of rubbish. If so could you suggest how I would setup
an Exchange server at home with the cable modem or fill me
in with a few points I may have missed.
Click to expand...

Since you are using cable service you will probably need to set up a "Smart
host" that you can send and recieve mail through, otherwise you won't have a
reverse lookup and a lot of mail servers will not accept mail from it
anyway. BTW, a "Smart host" is a mail server on the internet used as a relay
and can store and forward mail to your Exchange server and accepts mail from
your Exchange server to be sent to the internet.
 
I do something similar at home.

On the DNS side, you will want to have an external domain name that is
different from your internal domain name. This is very important. If you do
not make your two domain names different you will need a second DNS server
to host a copy of the domain for external clients.

If your registered domain name is "foobar.com" you could name your AD domain
"internal.foobar.com" or "foobar.local", etc.
 
All that's necessary is that your external DNS name has a MX record configured to point to your Exchange server. The problem
though is that unless you have a static IP address then can be problematic. If your IP changes, mail will stop flowing. As Kevin
mentioned, a Smart host would be the best route. The smart host will recieve the mail on your behalf and forward it directly to
you. You will also need to use this Smart Host to deliver mail for you since most SMTP servers now days use a reverse lookup
on the server sending them mail. This is a protection against spam. Lastly, remember to turn off relaying on your SMTP server.
Otherwise, you'll end up contributing to the spam problems and ultimately may be black listed.

Thank you,
Mike Johnston
Microsoft Network Support
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