As my e-mail hosting and domain are up for renewal next month I'm toying with the idea of bringing it in-house so to speak and hosting a server at home. I've got plenty of spare hardware sitting around and can get hold of Windows Server 2003 / Exchange 2007 for next to nothing but I'm unsure on a something...

If the server went down - i.e. ISP fails, power outage, etc - is all e-mail sent simply bounced or does the sending e-mail server keep trying?

The e-mail hosting costs me about £40 a year for all the users (probably about 10 users, none business critical just family and close friends) and I would guess there would be a similar cost in running a low powered server at home.

 

it will bounce until you come back up, but after a set interval the forwarding mail server will give up..

Or you can host your mx records with someone who will do a store and forward service..

I use DNSexit to do dynamic dns and point my mx records at my exchange server..

Shame the hdd is about to die a nasty death..

David

 

TBH I had exactly the same issue for two domains I moved both too Google Apps

Which I believe to be an excellent webmail interface plus you can use a SMTP/POP connection over SSL too.

I could have easily done what you have suggested but I would be paying for the power and licenses ;-) so why bother . . . Plus the google option took less than 30 minutes to do from start to finish try building a MS email solution in less than 3 hours !

Let us know what you go for.

R