ATT's change of domain name

[bill at horne.net (Bill Horne)]

Here's what I do: I have one "webmail" address, and I send all my
subscriptions to that. Most of the time, it's forwarded to my "real"
mediaone.net address, but if I'm on the road it's trivial to kill the
forwarding and revert to webmail. In any case, it's a POP account that I
don't have to worry about if I'm away or offline: I can pile up a couple of
weeks of email without any worries.

You can put up your own mailserver, but (no offense, Tim) be careful what
you ask for. I've had one going for about six months now, and it really is a
rude awakening into the day-to-day problems which system admins face.

Disk drive full? The guy on the other end of the phone is doing you a favor,
and he expects you to cure the problem RIGHT NOW - even if that's noon on a
Saturday and you're late for a soccer game.

Power failure? Your email will bounce and some mailing list programs will
suspend you automatically. (What, no UPS? It is a *server*, right?)

"Genius" nephew decides to install Luse98 and some games while you're at
work? That's what door locks are for.

Well, you get the idea. Suffice to say - the "old" rules of the Internet
mail system aren't in force anymore, and most users expect 24/7/365
reliability without any hitches. The fact that they call *their* ISP and
complain when *your* server is down isn't going to make you any friends,
either: helpdesk personnel are often minimally trained, and expect any email
address to belong to an ISP POP account with a professional staff behind it,
just because that's the only thing they can conceive of.

Sorry to be so negative: there ARE advantages to having your own setup, not
the least of which is secure web-based mail. It's working fine for me, but I
*still* use the POP server, just so I can turn it off during thunderstorms
or when I'm on vacation, or so my mail doesn't bounce if my server dies.

If you're set on using a dynamic DNS, I suggest you make a deal with your
ISP that allows you to point your domain into their SMTP machine in case of
failure. That means you'll need the same user ID's on your domain as you
have on theirs, so think about it in advance.

HTH. YMMV.

Bill Horne



Tim Lyons wrote:

> Depends.
>
> As I see it, you really have two options here;
>
>   1) Wait until attbi is legal and change all your subscriptions
>      ...until a new owner steps up and decides to make us use their
>      domain... Or 1b) setup a free web-based account and use that...
>
>   2) Setup your own mail server/dyndns/(optional domain) and
>      transfer all subscriptions.
>
> Either way you need to make the changes to your subscriptions; why
> not make it to something permanent that you can retain control of
> No matter who your ISP is.
>
> Of course, with a mailserver comes all the associated tasks involved
> in ensuring it is secure and not an open relay (especially if you
> want to bounce mail off it when traveling).  You should also consider
> implementing secure means of authentication/transfer for external mail
> access.  AntiVirus scanning of mail should be another consideration -
> it saves me a lot of headaches with the family.
>
> If you go the mailserver route,  Checkout dnydns.org or hn.org for
> your dynamic DNS needs.  I use DynDns.org for my primary domain and
> HN for all the others.
>
> --Tim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Malloy [mailto:johnmalloy at mediaone.net]
> Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 12:54
> To: tlyons at digitalvoodoo.org; discuss at blu.org
> Subject: RE: ATT's change of domain name
>
> That will be a logistical nightmare for quite a few people.
>
> Is there any way to make is less of a hassle?
>
> JM
>
> >That's correct as they are discontinuing the use of mediaone.net in
> >March.
> >All mail will bounce unless addressed properly.
> >
> >--Tim
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: discuss-admin at blu.org [mailto:discuss-admin at blu.org] On Behalf Of
> >John Malloy
> >Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 12:22
> >To: discuss at blu.org
> >Cc: isig at blu.org
> >Subject: ATT's change of domain name
> >
> >
> >
> >What are the implications of ATT's change of domain name?
> >
> >http://boston.com/dailynews/019/region/100_000_AT_T_cable_modem_subsc:.
> s
> >html
> >
> >
> >Will we all have to change every listserv we are subscribed to the new
> >attbi?
> >
> >
> >
> >Thanks!
> >
> >John Malloy
> >johnmalloy at mediaone.net
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Discuss mailing list
> >Discuss at blu.org
> >http://www.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
> Thanks!
>
> John Malloy
> johnmalloy at mediaone.net
>
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