local mail server

  • Thread starter Thread starter JanHenn
  • Start date Start date
J

JanHenn

I am hosting my website (www.GIPSupplies.com) from my PC. How do I / what is
required to host emails too so that I can use like (e-mail address removed)?
OK, I am a raw novice when it comes to this html stuff. Rather do access
databases and visual basic!
 
You need a mail server. I'm not sure there are any free ones out there, but
if you're looking to host this yourself on your PC, this is a bad idea.
First, you will loose emails unless your computer is on 100)% of the time. A
PC just isn't meant to do this. Second, non-server versions of Windows have
severe limitations on the number of network connections that you can have.
This is normally 10 connections. This doesn't mean 10 users, it means 10
connections. One user could actually use all 10 connections. You're also
opening yourself up to major attacks by having services running on a home
computer. Bottom line though, you can get a web site with a very reputable
host for under $8 a month, with email and all the services you could want (I
would recommend CrystalTech although there are plenty of good hosts out
there) without the risk of having your computer on every minute of every day
just to get your email. You may also find that your contract with your ISP
strictly prohibits this. COX communications, for example, does a lot of
blocking of ports to prevent users from hosting their own web sites and they
specify in their contract that this is a violation without upgrading to a
business account (which would be way more expensive than just hosting it
somewhere else).

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - Expression
 
If I am interpreting this correctly, you want to *use* your domain
email, so that you can receive mail addressed to (e-mail address removed).
Gotta be careful with your terms, *hosting" mean something altogether
different.

This is something you can set up on your own if your web hosting
company offers you a "control panel" for your domain. If not, then you
will probably need to contact your web host to have them set up the
accounts and passwords.

DJ
 
JanHenn said:
I am hosting my website (www.GIPSupplies.com) from my PC. How do I / what
is
required to host emails too so that I can use like (e-mail address removed)?
OK, I am a raw novice when it comes to this html stuff. Rather do access
databases and visual basic!
Click to expand...

What you would need is an email server, as it is a completely seperate
entity than the webserver. The only version of Windows that comes with full
email support are select versions of Windows 2003. If you have it there are
instructions out there on how to set it up, I am thinking ilopia.com for
some reason has them.

As Mark stated, it is not the ideal thing to do on a home PC; for the
reasons he gave and then some. Email servers are prone to be attacked and
otherwise abused. I have a Win03 setup and I basically had its performance
slowed to that of an 80's vintage PC when the harddrive had 0 bytes free
due to being full of badmail. You ever try to clean up a machine that you
can't log into?

I use CrystalTech for my hosting, the developer accounts are 2.95 a month
and that comes with 5 email addresses. They are my primary email carrier,
and all my server gets is subdomain stuff.
 
Excellent points. In this case though the user stated that they're actually
hosting their web site on their PC. Normally this is done using a dynamic
DNS system so their isn't actually any web host involved as they are taking
that role themselves. It's often not much more expensive to buy a cheap web
host than it is to pay for dynamic DNS though and definitely isn't worth the
security risk.

Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP- Expression
 
Oops and thank you, a rather important distinction I missed. Old eyes
ya know...

DJ
----

Excellent points. In this case though the user stated that they're actually
hosting their web site on their PC.
Click to expand...
<snip>
 
Thanks both of you gentlemen!
Much appreciated!
I'll look into the mail server / external hosting thing.
Keep up the great work!
Regards,
Jan
(BTW, I moved my mouse all over the place here and cannot find any rating
window?! Could somebody please give a top rating to all anwers here??
Thanks,
Jan)
 
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