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Free or cheap outgoing mail server (or better client) wanted

Hello.

Can anyone recommend a free or cheap outgoing mail server, to do MX resolution and send all my outgoing mail for me? I'm using Windows XP professional.

My broadband connection got pulled on Wednesday by Netservices, and I really don't want to have to keep changing the outgoing mail server settings in my mail client (Mozilla Thunderbird) each time I use a different ISP.

It's true that it's pretty easy to change this in Thunderbird - you set all accounts to send mail using the default server, then you can input a whole list of mail servers for every ISP that you might imaginably use under the "advanced" button, then simply click "select default" for the one for the ISP you happen to be using at the time.

However, I'd rather not have the hassle. I'd rather do my own MX resolution, so that I can always send email in the same way regardless of which ISP I'm using.

I believe that in theory, it's possible for a mail client to do its own MX resolution, but I have yet to find one which does this. I have successfully sent email in the past by doing MX resolution manually using a DNS client, and then reconfiguring my mail client to use the server for that particular email address before sending - but there don't seem to be any clients that automate this! Why on earth not? :shrug:

Failing that, the next best thing is to run an outgoing mail server on your own computer. Can anyone recommend any? MX resolution of outgoing mail is the only thing I need it for, I don't need it to have any other features at all, and would rather not use a bloated application that does a hundred and one other things. Thanks, appreciated.
 
Thanks, but they don't have any mail server software. I'm also sorry to have to say that someone has sent me a PM advertising hosting services. They must be desperate!

Anyway, I've found a mail server for Windows now - it's called PostCast, there's a free version which does everything I'm likely to want it to do. I've found that the speed and reliability improves if you set it to use one of the 13 root servers, rather than using your own ISP's assigned servers. It's clever enough to offer your ISP's assinged DNS servers as an option when you're changing the DNS settings, but it's not clever enough to reconfigure DNS settings by itself when you change to a different ISP. So I figure you might as well set it to use one of the 13 roots and leave it at that.

Now that it works, it's just a case of making it more secure. I'm using Kerio personal firewall, but just in case that fails, I've also shifted the server to a high-numbered port, so that passing port scanners are less likely to spot it. You can set it to accept mail only from certain IP addresses, but when I tried to set it to only accept mail from IP address 127.0.0.1, it didn't work. I'd also like to use password authentication and secure connection - Thunderbird supports this but it seems that PostCast server doesn't. Or at least the free version doesn't.

I don't know whether the paid version supports password authentication and secure connection or not - but if it does, then I think it's a bit irresponsible that the free version doesn't. If people who aren't clued up about spam run this program straight out of the box, they'll have an open relay on their computer.

That said, I'm confident that my setup is probably as secure as it needs to be. But I'd be grateful if anyone can suggest other software we can use to do the same thing, but with better security. Thanks.
 
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I'm a little confused.....:confused:
Its late and I haven't had a cup of tea in....minutes! :laugh:

Do you want a program or a mail host?

If you want a piece of software try The Bat! Its not free...But not very expensive...but its VERY good...I have been using it for a few years and I have never had a single problem with it.

I'm not too sure if it will do the things you need (But I suppse you could always take a look) :shrug:

If you want a mail host....Can't much help you..... :rolleyes:
 
Thanks for your reply.
Do you want a program or a mail host?
When you say a mail host - what exactly do you mean? I'm not sure if the thing you mean is what I want, but I suspect it probably isn't.

If by mail host you mean some sort of external service out there on the internet, then no, that's definitely not what I want. However, I do definitely want a program that runs on my own computer, though, preferably which runs on Windows XP.

Basically I want a program that does MX resolution so that I can send emails without having to use an ISP's relay. Ideally, I'd like a mail client, like Thunderbird, but with MX resolution functionality bolted on.

However, if such a thing doesn't exist, then I'll make do with the next best thing, which is a mail relaying daemon, which I can use with my existing mail client by setting the SMTP server to to 127.0.0.1 rather than my ISP's relaying server.

Thanks for the link, though - but I can't see anything which says that "The Bat" is able to do MX resolution. This is no insignificant detail: I'm quite happy with Thunderbird as a mail client, and I'm not interested in any other features at all apart from MX resolution.

PostCast is a mail relaying program. I don't know what I've done to my installation of it, I've changed something in the settings but now it doesn't work. It still receives mail from my mail client okay, but it isn't relaying it onwards. It seems to say that the reason it can't do it is DNS timeout. I've tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it, and it makes no difference ....


.... except that as I write, I've just tried it again, and it does work now! I'd better not change anything! It looks like the reason it wasn't working was simply internet network congestion, though I find that hard to believe. I'm baffled. Has anyone else tried doing this sort of thing? Thanks. :)
 
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