Case Study - Multiple Domain Email Hosting

Background: A friend of mine runs a personal web site from a domain name he uses with DNS4Me. He uses Serv-U to give him remote access to his files on his home computer and RealVNC to give him complete access to his computer when he travels. DNS4Me has given him a method of making his computer remotely accessible while letting him run Internet services.

Problem: The only thing missing from his Internet solution is the ability to run a mail server so he can have email addresses for his domain name. Unfortunately, his ISP blocks incoming port 25 which prevents him from running his own mail server.

Solution: He has two ways he can get around this limitation imposed by his ISP. The first is to find another Internet service that will host email for his domain. Using DNS4Me's custom DNS feature, he can add an MX record to his domain that points to the mail servers for his paid mail service.

Fortunately for him, my ISP doesn't block incoming port 25 and I run a mail server for my own domain's email accounts. Alt-N's MDaemon allows me to provide email for multiple domains. Using DNS4Me's custom DNS feature, I added an MX record at a lower priority that points to my domain's mail server.

These settings would suffice to provide him with email access through my mail server, but I wanted to make it more complete and easier for him to remember things. From within the DNS4Me client using the custom DNS feature, I added a mail subdomain to his domain as an alias to my domain name. This lets him use mail.his-domain.com in his mail client as his SMTP and POP3 server. Since I also provide web access to his email using MDaemon's WorldClient, I added a new host record to his domain called "webmail". DNS4Me lets me specify special actions for host records, so I have the "webmail" subdomain redirect to the URL on my server where he can login to his email account.

Benefits: The powerful custom DNS feature in DNS4Me lets my friend continue to host his own web site, FTP server, and any other Internet services while redirecting mail to my own mail server for him. I'm able to add custom subdomains to his domain that provide a uniform naming convention to his mail services without disturbing any of his other services. All of this is completely transparent on the surface.

-Douglas J. Papenthien, DNS4Me Product Manager