Getting a "virtual" (?) static ip when one has a dynamic ip
 

I have no idea whether that's the best way to word the topic, and I can't search on "ip" to see if there is an earlier thread.....

My isp is Roadrunner (via Oceanic Cable, the only high-speed game in town here).

I am heartily, heartily sick of Roadrunner's socal smtp server either a) losing emails sent with no notice, or b) taking 24-48 hours sometimes to actually send an email.

All of my email addresses are aliases and forward to my "real" pop3 box at a wonderful, local isp in the Bay Area. They have been well-worth keeping for $10 a month even having moved away (for 10 years the same guy has answered the support line, and support email questions are always answered within five minutes by the same guy).

I can't use that isp's smtp server though without a static ip address (which I cannot get from Oceanic with doubling the monthly cost -- which is already too high given the monopoloy they have here).

But my "real" isp tells me that if I had a static ip address they could set me up to use their smtp server.

Are there any services that allow you to have a virtual static ip (is that the right term?) that would also follow you when Oceanic makes its occasional change to my dynamic ip address? I could then have this and get set up with my real isp to use their smtp server.

Forgive any cloudiness or confusion in the question, please :)

What about a static hostname? You could set up something like cblaisd.dyndns.org, which could auto-update (via a small software that runs on your home router or pc) to whatever your current IP address is.

Then your POP3 ISP (who sounds like they'd be willing to work with you) could add that hostname to their whitelist, and you'd be all set.

If your "real ISP" was set up to require authentication for sending mail, then you wouldn't need a static IP address. My ISP is verizon.net, and I can send email when I am anywhere in the world through their SMTP server because they require authentication. This requires two separate passwords, one for picking up mail and one for sending. Maybe you can convince your "real ISP" to configure their SMTP server that way.

Why not just use the gmail SMTP server? You should just move all your domains and aliases to Google for domains and use that.

With the gmail option, don't I lose the ability to have the email showing as coming from mydomainname?

Good point. In the past, they haven't been able/willing to do this. But I haven't asked in a couple of years.

Gmail: YES, Google for domains: no. All the email I ever send you comes through Google for domains.

You went waaaay beyond my understanding :D

Thanks. Guess I'll go nosing around Google to see how that works and what it costs, etc.

OK, if this is better suited to PM, I'm happy to take it there :)

Nosing around, Google Domains does look promising. But I have questions....

Here is how my email is currently set up

I have mydomain.net purchased through DomainDirect.com. It gives me five email aliases. These are set up as follows

[email protected] forwards to a pop3 box on my "real" isp
[email protected] forwards to another pop3 box on my "real" isp
[email protected] forwards to whatever her current real email is
[email protected] forwards to whatever his current real email is

Moving through the Google Domain process, the first thing it tells me is that it (or I) will need to do some messing with my DNS settings via my domain name registrar. OK, I can do that.

But my big question is in regards to son/daughter -- will all of their outgoing smtp mail now be trying to use Google as their smtp server?

I don't want to mess them up.

Yes, you change the email settings at your registrar, you can make the change for just email so your website stays unaffected. They can use whatever SMTP server they want but I'd suggest switching them to the google SMTP simply because it is really reliable.

Pros of Google for domains:

It's free, it has an AWESOME spam filter, it can POP email from other accounts and merge it into your main account, it can forward email anywhere you want, it's accessible on a mobile device, it archives all your email at the same time, it offers calendars for all the users, it has 2.5Gb of storage.

Back to the original question...

I did this (before moving to Optimum Boost):

1. You need to use Dynamic DNS (more on that shortly).
2. You can set yourself up a domain name & have a DNS server for low cost. I used easydns, but given you need to get around blocked ports, you might want to see if noip (noip.com) does this as one package.
3. Re-route mail on an alternate port (to get around rr restrictions). I used noip.com for this.

When all is said and done, you get the following:

Your domain (mydomain.com, or whatever).
DNS which points your domain's servers back to your dynamic IP machine.
Dynamic DNS - modifies your DNS records automatically whenver DHCP changes your IP address.
SMTP redirect to an unblocked port.
Outbound SMTP as well on an unblocked port.
Web hosting on a redirected port (not the blocked port 80).
A complete and total violation of RR terms of service.

I use dynamic DNS also. I don't know if it will work for you. Dynamic DNS just keeps your DNS record updated when your IP address changes. It does this in one of at least two ways. If your router supports it (and many do), you can just set up your router to update your dyndns record when your IP address assignment changes. If not, you can download a small applet to run on your computer in the background that will do the same thing. (I happen to use ddclient on a linux box, but they also have windows clients.)

Dyndns allows me to make connections to my home computer no matter when the IP address is. Though you might be able to use your own dns hostname with this service, I use one provided by dyndns.org. (I pick the name, but it's their domain name, as in lihprem.dyndns.org)

For smtp, if your isp is doing authentication by numeric IP address, dyndns won't help. However, if he can do the authentication by hostname rather than by a fixed numeric IP address, dyndns might work for you.

-David

Dynamic DNS will not work in this case - most mail daemons use IP addresses, not host names, for their access control. In the unusual event one does use host names, it'd also be cached, so if your IP address ever changes rapidly, the mail server may take time to catch up.

I'd second ScottC's suggestion to use Google for domains. The other thing would be to ask your real ISP to implement SMTP authentication (with TLS, of course), which bypasses the need for a static IP address and allows you to authenticate to their SMTP mailserver using your username and password.

Glad I stumbled on this thread since I hadn't checked out Google for Domains since it first came out. I'm in a somewhat similar situation to the OP. Currently I have all of my mail addresses routed to gmail for the great spam filter and whatnot. Once I've already identified an address that is getting lots of spam I can ask my domain registrar to just send that mail to the trash without forwarding it to me.

What is not clear to me is if I can set up third level domains which direct to something outside of Google. I'd be happy to have Google manage all of my mail and whatnot but the one thing that kept me from signing up originally is that I host my website on a unix box I am quite happy with. So can I move my domain to Google through one of their partners, have the benefits of free family Google Apps and the accompanying free mail accounts but have a third level domain point to another box?

Yes, as long as your ISP lets you configure your own DNS. I have my MX settings point to Google, and my web, ftp and other stuff points to my webserver.

Actually, it can be configured to work. The dyndns client can update things other than DNS - local config files, for example, which include the IP address(s) needed.