When someone tries to send you an email message, their machine --
or their ISP's SMTP server -- is going to query the DNS directories,
looking for the entries that specify what machine(s) handle(s) mail
for your domain.  If the specified mailserver for your domain is
offline or otherwise unreachable, there can be entries specifying one
or two fallback servers to use.
  If those are not specified, or aren't reachable, most SMTP servers
will keep trying for about 24 hours before giving up.  Mail being
sent directly from people's machines, however, may be lost.

  Anecdotal experience to date suggests that DSL outages are
relatively common, and usually last more than 24 hours.  (My DSL
provider neglected to inform me that there was a weekly "maintenance
window", that the service was *not* necessarily 24x7....)
  So it seems to me that anyone wanting to reliably receive email
hosting their own domain on a DSL connection is likely to want to
have some arrangement whereby some machine *not* dependent on the
same service will accept email on their behalf, and can be advertised
as an alternate point of delivery.  You can use software such as
fetchmail (Linux) to retrieve any such diverted mail when the
connection is up.

  ISPs routinely do this for their customers -- larger customers are
able to do it for themselves.  If there isn't already somebody
offering just this as a service for small domain-owners, perhaps it
is the kind of service that domain-owners might pair off to do for
each other on an as-needed basis.

Dave Gillett


On 25 Nov 2001, at 8:40, chuck finnigan wrote:

> ATT is trying to buy out [log in to unmask] which filed for
> bankruptcy. this could mean another change in my email address
> which i'm getting tired of doing. i've registered my own domain
> name and would like to stay away from ISP's and host from my home
> computer. what am i getting into?
>
> i know i'll need a good DSL router with a firewall, software, what
> else? i can get Qwest DSL service without signing onto an ISP.
>
> i'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with this.
>
> thank you,
>
> Chuck Finnigan
> [log in to unmask]
>
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