Something I wanted to share with the community is not a really impressive stuff. Just something i’m using for a long time now and it does a great job for home/SOHO user with a dynamic internet IP. It also is a nice workaround for a blocked 25 port.
It’s bSMTP (batched SMTP) also referred to as queued SMTP. It’s not well known because not all hosting providers / registrars provide this service. In the Netherlands its picking up popularity. (could be in other country’s it’s simply not allowed)
The principle is simple:
You host a mail-server at your hosting provider / registrar with a catch-all mailbox. The messages are received by this mail server and forwarded over SMTP to every dynamic.dnsprovider.com and port (eg 2525) of your choice.
Note the messages are received by the hosted mail-server on the fixed IP that can be traced to your registered domain name. (it’s not SMTP forwarding)
Pro’s
- All receiving/sending (SMTP) mail-servers are completely happy because the message is delivered to a IP traceable (DNS) to your domain. (eg mx record)
- With local port forwarding it possible to receive mail on the port of your choice, bypassing a blocked 25 port.
- You can open your receiving port to one IP, mail always comes from your (own) hosted mail-server. So knocking on your door to find a relay is futile.
- Simple configuration of your local mail-sever, it’s a straight forward SMTP mail server.
- You can setup your hosted mail server to catch a of lot spam (less traffic to you) and scan for viruses.
- High availability, if your local mail server is down the e-mails send to you are “buffered” on the hosted mail-server until your local server is up.
Con’s
- Delay of delivering. It’s hard to measure, guess in my case it’s about 30 sec delay.
- Planning of spam filters. If you let your hosted mail-server catch spam you have to figure out the best thresholds for this.
- Speed, not really a issue in a home/SOHO environment.
This are my 2 cents