MailDoor User's Guide

This appendix describes how to use MailDoor in concert with other Open Door Networks products.

Overview. No additional Open Door product is required for MailDoor to run and function as described in this Users' Guide. However, MailDoor's utility is greatly increased when used in concert with other Open Door products, especially the HomeDoor Default Home Page Server. Just as MailDoor enables e-mail addresses on a domain-by-domain basis, HomeDoor enables home pages and complete virtual Web sites for multiple domains. Details of HomeDoor are available on the HomeDoor Web pages.

Using MailDoor with HomeDoor. In many cases you will want to use MailDoor and HomeDoor in combination. HomeDoor works with your Web server and your domain name server (DNS) to provide Web pages for each domain on the server. MailDoor works with AIMS and your DNS to provide e-mail addresses for each domain.

MailDoor and HomeDoor work independently, and do not interact with one another in any way. There is a point of commonality between the two, however: both require a DNS to set up and maintain the actual domain names themselves. Appendix 1 of the HomeDoor Users' Guide provides a complete example of how to configure the DNS to create these domain names. This example includes configuring the DNS to create the MX records needed to tell the Internet e-mail system how to forward e-mail to your AIMS server. MX records are required for correct operation of AIMS and MailDoor in a multi-domain environment. Even if you are not running HomeDoor, it is recommended that you review this example.

In the hosts files specified in the HomeDoor example, the name "yourmailserver.com" is used in the MX records to indicate the name assigned by the DNS to the machine running AIMS. Be sure to replace this name with the name that you desire for your real mail server (for instance "mail.yourdomainname.com" or just "yourdomainname.com"). Also, be sure to define an "A record" (or "Permanent Host" in MacDNS terminology) for the mail server's name, and point it to the machine running AIMS.

• NOTE: You may be running AIMS on the same machine as your Web server. You should still assign an additional name to that machine to indicate the mail server (such as "mail.yourdomainname.com"), in case you want to split up the two services later.
  

• IMPORTANT You can run HomeDoor and AIMS/MailDoor on the same or on different machines. If AIMS is running on the same machine as HomeDoor, its address remains the address of the machine itself (as specified in the MacTCP or TCP/IP control panel), not any of the addresses assigned to HomeDoor.
  

Using MailDoor with LogDoor. LogDoor provides individual log files and real-time statistics for each individual Web site on your server. LogDoor works together with your Web server to keep track of this information and to make it available over the Web. LogDoor is particularly powerful when used in combination with HomeDoor and MailDoor.

MailDoor does not interact directly with LogDoor in any way. MailDoor and LogDoor can be run on the same machine if desired. MailDoor, LogDoor and HomeDoor can all even be run on the same machine. Performance implications of such a combination should be minimal, but will be dependent on the total load on the system.

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