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Can Mail Servers Work With Dynamic IPs?

Posted by Cliff on from the insuring-delivery-when-your-address-changes-daily dept.

rpandya asks: "I'm considered switching from DSL to Sprint ION but they don't yet provide static IPs. Now I think I should register my domain with granitecanyon.com and dyndns.org, and host my own mail & Web service, instead. I'm switching my main home server from NT to Linux, and it's already behind a SonicWall firewall with NAT, so it's pretty reliable and secure. However, I'm concerned that the dynamic IP issues might cause some hiccups in mail service. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has tried something like this, or has any thoughts on how well it would work."

3 of 11 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Your name by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

    It took all of my self control not to burst into laughter here at work when I read your name. It reminded me of a time back in college when after a party I saw something on TV that contained the sonc "Secret Agent Man".

    For about the next hour I sat in my room Singing "Secret Asian Man".

    I'm just waiting for the Dr. Demento or Weird Al version of that song.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  2. Re:Spam filtering by garver · · Score: 2

    The other way to handle this is set your mail server up to always relay through your ISP/DSL provider. To the ISP, your mail server will be like any other customer and the message will be sent on to its destination by the ISP's server which has a static IP and is trusted.

    Still, what's the point? There are hosting companies that will do it for free, if you want to put up with some advertising... Then again, I do a lot of things that are pointless, just because I can...

  3. Good idea by dlc · · Score: 2

    This is probably the way to go, for a few reasons:

    • Many (most) services are, or can be, name-based rather than address based, so this shouldn't be an issue for most processes other than routing.
    • With many of these services, you get to choose your own hostname, so you can choose something groovy. I believe some will also provide free TLD DNS service on one of these dynamic addresses, so you don't have to settle for groovyhost.sillydomain.com or something similar.
    • If (when) ION goes to static IPs, you are already set up to handle the services, so there will be no rearranging of addresses and client configurations.

    You can get/write scripts that will tell your daemons what their hostname/IP is (the ones that need to know -- sendmail probably, maybe Apache) as you change the address.

    Plus, running your own servers is inherantly more satisfying. Knowing that you have control over (almost) all aspects of your services can be a pretty, albeit scary, proposition.


    Cthulhu for President!
    --
    (darren)