[svlug] Domain over multiple sites...

[Michael Robinson]

Here's the situation.  I have a registered domain name, 5 static IP
addresses, and a 6M/384K DSL connection.  The friendly outfit Eskimo
North acts as a backup mail spooler for me.  I want to use my domain
name and not someone else's for email.  My school email address, I
recently graduated with a B.S in Computer Science, will go away in a
year.  My Comcast email address may go away sooner as I might dump
Comcast.  I host my domain at home if that isn't already clear and I
forward email to my home account.  I'm reluctant to use one of the 
free email services like google mail instead because of privacy
concerns.

I have a single point of failure problem, the DSL.  I have battery
backup units, but in the rare event that a power outage happens and
lasts longer than an hour, I'm going down.  Less rare perhaps or just
as rare, network equipment failure such as a switch failing can also
cause an outage and typically a longer one.

The SMTP standard supports re-transmission up to so many times over a
certain period of time.  I think the period is a week.  As long as 
email I haven't received isn't time sensitive, that normally isn't a
problem.

I hope I can use cheap residential cable service to tunnel over to
Eskimo securely so the spooler at Eskimo can then pass the email over 
to me through that tunnel.  I want my servers to detect the need for a
tunnel and I want the establishment and tear down of a secure tunnel to
be automated.  I hope this is straightforward for both Eskimo and my
end.

The backup spooling works exceptionally well when my mail relays are not
accessible.  The email can't reach my relays which feed my mail hub and
new emails can't be looked at when the DSL is out though.

An approach is to sign up for Comcast Business with static IPs.
Trouble is, I'm not really a business where $1235.16/year is a huge
increase over $540/year for residential service where I can quit at any
time.  Having two Internet connections via two different networks is
good, but a power outage will take down both links fairly quickly.

A risky proposition is to try an IPv6 over IPv4 tunnel...  I'm not very
familiar with the security issues surrounding IPv6 which has no network
address translation.

Concerning power outages, I want to collect green power somehow and 
when there is an outage or when I've stored as much as I can, feed 
that power into my servers.  With enough green power to run the 
servers for 12-24 hours, I will outlast most outages.  Beyond that, 
I'll call Eskimo and inform them that I'm down.

     -- Michael C. Robinson