You don't need, but I would suggest:
1. Registering a domain:
A google search for "domain registrar" will pull plenty that you can
use along with hosting services that will host your domain.
2. Getting a static IP address from your ISP.
You will need:
1. If you do not have a static ip address and a domain, use dynamic dns:
http://www.dyndns.com/services/dns/dyndns/
This service is free, and allows you to pick a domain name that you
can update whenever your IP address changes. A computer system can be
configured to perform these updates automatically.
2. A computer. (Duh :-) ) I would suggest dedicating one computer
solely to this task, particularly because once you have a mailserver
you may find that you want a maillist server and a webserver, etc...To
run a mailserver you don't really need a very great computer...if you
don't plan to deal with 1000s of messages per day, the cheapest new
computer you can buy will easily handle this. In fact you could buy
yourself a new machine and use your old one to handle the email
server.
3. Mail server software. I suggest, if you have the knowledge or
know someone who does that you run linux. Linux is a free and robust
operating system that has many free pieces of email server software
available for you to use. The most popular of these software being
postfix and sendmail. Setting this up, though, is not easy and if you
are not very computer literate I would suggest hiring a consultant to
do this for you. Other solutions could be commercial software under
Windows, but in my opinion these solutions are not as robust and will
cost the same as getting a consultant to setup your mailserver (a good
one should be able to do it in an afternoon).
4. Broadband internet service. |
