how do i set up a win2k or winXP box as a SMTP server?

[spewn]

i have a win2k box setup for IIS. how can i set it up to be the SMTP server for my outlook? so i could recieve messages and send from my own comp, not running through hotmail or yahoo.

any ideas?

- g

 

[spewn]

i found:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303701&sd=tech

seems relatively easy enough. but i'm wondering the pros and cons of having my comp be the actual smtp server, which i assume means i will receive my emails sent to domains i set up. however, i have a couple questions:

- where does email go when i'm not connected to receive it?
- what risks do i face (added) that i don't already face being connected.
- how does the IIS server find the email for let's say, mymail.com? if someone sends email@mymail.com, how will it come to my inbox?

i currently use IIS to run a website, but it's only published on my own comp, it's only for development. i'm fairly new to this, so any help would be appreciated.

- g

 

[nickpark]

It would be better to get a pop account. ISPs normally provide them with the internet connection. If you are just looking for easier emailing it will be fine. You can get your ISP for mymail.com to forward emails to your POP account.

If you want to setup your own SMTP server... outgoing is fairly simple, but incoming requires a dns MX record for your domain pointing to your machine which will therefore need a static IP address. (although you may have one of these.)

Of course when your PC is off, emails will not be delivered (until later possibly)... I don't know if you can obtain use of store and forward mailservers, free.

I think you'd also need to configure a mailbox app such as Exchange.