We are currently running a server with CPanel on it for our customers, but we were thinking of offering a backup mail service for our customers on ADSL/dialup lines that run their own mail server.

I did a search on google and WHT, and found that I can do it with Exim (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=305037)

Now, if we had the following would this work?

Customer has his domain etc hosted on our server, except mail which is sent to his server at home.
If his line went down, and he was using our backup service, would the email still be sent to him once he came back online, of would it get delivered locally?

In other words, would we need to have a seperate server to run a backup service on?

I would first try to find out why your cpanel box is unreliable enough to need a backup :)


The easiest way to do this without messing with your server is to specify backup mail spools in your DNS. For example, Easydns.com lets you specify their mail servers, with a lower priotity than your own. If yours is down, their server will store the incoming mail and deliver it to your server as soon as it is back up. It's not a true backup, because your server has to come back online before the email can be retrieved, but it prevents bounced mail from occasional glitches and reboots.

Works great!

The server isnt unreliable, I want to offer backup mail to customers that host their own mail server so that if their conenction is lost we can store it then forward it on when they come back online.

Easydns.com lets you specify their mail servers, with a lower priotity than your own. If yours is down, their server will store the incoming mail and deliver it to your server as soon as it is back up

Thats what im hoping to be able to do :)

In order for this to work, you need your dns hosted elsewhere or if your server goes down, so does your mail.

oops double post.

You could always get the client to use the Leave Messages on server option in outlook. That way if something happenes to their computer they can just reconnect the the pop email server and download all their messages again.

Leaving the messages on the server isnt all that much use if they cant receive the messages in the first place! ;)

O well, guess Ill just have to experiment and hope for the best!