Ok,

Ingredient:

Home computer “A”  working as a server

linksys router that comes with ddns setup firmware for tzo.com

htmailserver running on the home computer “A”.

port forward set up for the linksys router port 25 (for smtp) and port 143 (for imap), pointing to computer “A”‘s ip address.

set up the linksys router with Tzo.com (or dyndns.com) so that “mydomain.linksysnet.com” is now recognized from the outside world, pointing to computer “A”

Using htmailserver administrator, configure imap account.  this is straightforward. For the sake of clarity, let’s say I have created “mydomain.linksysnet.com” domain in the administrator program, then I add an account “john@mydomain.linksysnet.com” I also set up a password for this account, lets say “*htpassword*” is my password

‘attach’ existing external e-mail accounts to the “john@mydomain.linksysnet.com.”  In that way, all my e-mail accounts will be collected by this imap server.

receiving mail part is done.  this was straight forward.

The reason for this post is to document what had been done for email sending part.  this turns out to be a trciky part. There are a lot of posts about comcast smtp server relaying for hmailserver.   To make a long story short, the relaying of mail to smtp.comcast.net does work. here is how.

htmailserver side  : Settings->Prootcol->SMTP in “Delivery of e-mail” tab,

localhost name =”smtp.mydomain.linksysnet.com”

SMTP relayer : Remote Host name =”smtp.comcast.net”  Remote TCP/IP port =”25″

Server Requires Authentification=”Checked”  Username : your comcast mail address, ie “johnsmith@comcast.net” (Since you are a comcast customer, you do have one, don’t you?)

Password=password for johnsmith@comcast.net”

Use SSL =Unchecked

That’s all for htMailserver side.

Now I want to use my e-mail client (such as Thunderbird) to connect to htmailserver from other computer “B”. Since I setup the imap server, all  emails will be stored in the server (computer A) and not in the local folder (of computer B).  This is good because I wanted to access mails from multiple PCs.

Assuming Thunderbird as mail client,

mail protocol is imap.  server name for recieving mail is imap.mydomain.linksysnet.com.  Port is 143. Thunderbird should automatically configre this for you, if the hmailserver is properly set up and running (amazing)

For e-mail sender, the servername is smtp.myname.linksysnet.com.   you use plain password to send an email and the username is “john@mydomain.linksysnet.com”, password you are going to use is “*htpassword*”  and port you are going to use is 25

That’s all there is to it.  with this setup, I can send e-mail from ‘john@mydomain.linksysnet.com” to any e-mail addresses.

Its thrilling to see my email is now sent from “john@mydomain.linksysnet.com” rather than “johnsmith@comcast.net” tzo let you use your own domain name rather than linksysnet.com subdomain (for fee) so it is possible to have e-mail address such as john@smiths.info.