>
> So , are you saying on a standard Comcast cable connection I can't possibly operate my own SMTP server with any degree of
> inboxing/success?

Since I have setup a number of these on Comcast I can tell you that you can successfully run a mail server on Comcast.  There though are some problems.

1.    You cannot receive via port 25 since this is blocked.  You can get a mail forwarder like MailHop Relay provided by DynDNS to forward the mail to a different port like 2525.  http://www.dyndns.com/services/mailhop/relay.html You can also use MercuryD to get your mail via POP3 from another mail service like Yahoo or Google.

2.    You cannot send via port 25 since even if it was opened by Comcast all the major systems will block the mail since the IP address is not a fixed address.

I run a small non profit and want to use Mercury as a completely standalone SMTP server. Surprisingly, I haven't found much information on how to set this up. There is one guide floating about the net which describes a bunch of config step, but concludes with entering an external SMTP server in the MercuryC config anyway. I don't want to use any external SMTP. That's why I downloaded Mercury :) Right now, I still get the 553 error about sending to an external address whenever I try to send a mail through my local Mercury server. Thanks much for any help on this!

When you run the installer for Mercury you should get the question if you want to use MercuryE for direct external delivery or MercuryC for relaying through your Internet provider's SMTP server. The selection can be changed from the configuration menu (Protocol modules) and requires a program restart.

Mercury will have most of the configuration for a standard installation ready right from the start. You will need to provide information about local domains, though. Mercury help has information on how to do this. This has to be done right, so take some time to read the help text carefully.

There is no reliable setup guide for Mercury around on the web as far as I know. There is however a PDF manual in the Mercury directory:  man-471.pdf. This is a good place to start seeking information.

/Rolf 

> I run a small non profit and want to use Mercury as a completely standalone SMTP server. Surprisingly, I haven't found much information
> on how to set this up. There is one guide floating about the net which describes a bunch of config step, but concludes with entering an
> external SMTP server in the MercuryC config anyway. I don't want to use any external SMTP. That's why I downloaded Mercury :) Right now, I
> still get the 553 error about sending to an external address whenever I try to send a mail through my local Mercury server. Thanks much for
> any help on this!

In addition to what Rolf told you there are a number of external requirements.  The MercuryE direct sending depends on the receiving server to accept you as a valid sender of good mail,  There are a number of reasons you will be getting these rejections.

1.    The first and foremost is that you MUST have a fixed IP address and a valid host name with PTR record.  The randomly assigned IP addresses are blacklisted and the lack of a PTR record pointing to a valid host is used by many hosts to reject the connection.

2.    Your IP address must not be on any of the other blacklists.

3.    Your EHLO command must send a valid domain name, i.e. mail.example.com

If all of these requirements are met send us a copy of the MercuryE session log showing the actual process and failure for analysis.

So , are you saying on a standard Comcast cable connection I can't possibly operate my own SMTP server with any degree of inboxing/success?

You can certainly operate your own mail server, but there is no guarantee that your outbound mail will be accepted by a lot of servers.

This is because of the enormous volume of spam that emanates from compromised machines on 'home' connections such as yours.

Thats correct, Comcast does not allow residents to run their own servers at home and if you do they will shut you down....they do have nearly all ports

closed down but some people have circumvented that by using other ports. For the most part Comcast will still know....

 Comcast will allow you to run a server at home with their Business Internet package which costs about 190US per month ..I almost fell for that but instead

I went and leased a 100mbit dedicated server in Canada which are over 1/2 less than US dedicated servers... 

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