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Contacting your Internet Service Provider

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Contacting your Internet Service Provider

Before installing and configuring the POP3 service, you must contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and complete the steps described in the following table.

Step Description Additional reference

Register an e-mail domain name.

The e-mail domain name must be a registered domain name, and it must match the MX record created by your ISP. If you do not have have an e-mail domain name, contact your ISP for assistance registering a domain name.

  

Have your ISP create a Mail eXchanger (MX) record for your e-mail domain that matches the name of your mail server running the POP3 service.

An MX record provides e-mail routing to a mail exchanger host for e-mail sent to the domain name.

For example, in the domain example.com, the mail server might be mailserver1.example.com.

The ISP would create an MX record for example.com that points to mailserver1.example.com.

An e-mail that is sent to someone@example.com is routed to mailserver1.example.com. This is the server where the POP3 service is running and to which users connect to retrieve e-mail.

To change the name of your server to a title that reflects its role (for example, mailserver1), see Rename a computer.

Obtain information to configure your mail server for static addressing.

Your ISP must provide a separate static IP address for each mail server on which you intend to install the POP3 service.

To obtain a static Internet Protocol (IP) address, you must also obtain the subnet mask, default gateway, and preferred Domain Name System (DNS) server from your ISP. Each mail server must then be configured to use an individual static IP address.

For more information on how to configure your mail server with a static IP address, see Configure TCP/IP for static addressing.