In the next couple of days, a backup mail server that I run is going to be moving to upstate New York, and needs to be offline for a few weeks. As a result, I’m looking for a good, reliable provider as a temporary replacement. What I need is an ISP or hosting company that, instead of having some huge package that includes (as an afterthought) backup mail service for the domains that you host with them, has an inexpensive package specifically for providing store-and-forward SMTP service for domains that are hosted elsewhere. I’d also prefer a service that will let me host multiple domains for minimal extra coin. Most hosting providers seem to have a ton of online detail about how much it’ll cost me to host my website with them, but then have a “contact us” email link for anything less than that, so it’s hard to get any sense of who provides backup mail hosting service, and what it costs.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Comments

ZoneEdit (http://www.zoneedit.com/) offers backup mail servers… I think it’s something like $10 per year per domain so I don’t know if it fits the “minimal extra coin” criteria.

• Posted by: Sebastian on Nov 30, 2003, 9:05 PM

If the mail server is a backup server, just blow it off. If you are really concerned, change your DNS records to eliminate the backup MX record. When the backup mail server is restored, add back the backup MX record.

It’s a lot simpler than trying to find a trusted third party to host your mail server in the next couple of days.

You may want to consider what points of failure you are avoiding. Are you concerned about connectivity to your mail server? Then you should have a backup net connection. Are you concerned about the mail store? Then you should have a backup machine ready to become the primary mail store with easily moved or restored disks.

All I’m trying to point out is that you may want to look at the end-to-end reliability of your mail system rather than a single item that provides limited redundancy.

Besides, you don’t need no steenkin’ suspenders—you already own a belt. :-)

• Posted by: Sam Greenfield on Nov 30, 2003, 9:37 PM

https://www.cotse.net/home.html

7 bucks a month, best money I ever spent. I’ve been with them for 2 years and have only good things to say about them.

On, and unlimited aliases as well.

• Posted by: GoatBeard on Dec 1, 2003, 5:48 PM

Try Lux Scientia—they’re great and, for your purposes, should be just a few bucks a month (around 5).

http://www.luxsci.com

• Posted by: Adam on Dec 8, 2003, 4:21 PM
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