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So how impossible is it to create your own email address from your own home server?
- Thread starter iPhoney:)
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It's not that difficult at all. The difficult is locking it down so that it doesn't get taken over by spammers.
Depending on your internet provider, actually hosting a SMTP (email) server at your house may be difficult or expensive. My internet provider blocks the network so a residential internet account can't do that, ... I'd have to upgrade to a business account, which is like $150/month+.
On the other hand, you can register your own domain name and have a service like GoDaddy.com host it (and your email addresses) for a few bucks a month.
Not that difficult I according to all the lit available of course I have been having issues trying to set up my IMAP server trying to do it myself but it can be done.
This is the best route.
Setting up your own mail server can be done, but unless you're an expert on securing it it shouldn't be done.
This way be dragons...
I'll second this, especially if what the OP is really interested in is just having more "personalized" email addresses for himself and his family members. So the steps are:
- Register a domain name (this shouldn't cost more than about $10 per year).
- Set up on Google Apps for your domain, to actually manage the email hosting.
If you actually want to set up the mail server inside your home, that's a good bit more work, and you have to worry about keeping it secure, etc.
This. GMail is awesome, and Google Apps is just GMail @yourdomain.com instead of @gmail.com.
Wow, I didn't realize how easy/free it was to use Google Apps to manage a domain. Just moved mine over there. Sweet. Thanks guys!
Setting it up is easy, keeping it up is another matter.
Your isp may prohibit setting up those services in your Terms of Service agreement and block the ports and/or shut you down if they start seeing increased traffic.
Also if you shut your computer off, or it crashes, you lose your email, in so far as not receiving people's emails.
You're much better off dealing with a company that specializes in this, they have fail overs, backups and load balancing. None of these are generally feasible to implement for a home solution (other then backups of course).