say i own a domain name, mydomain.com, and i hired a web space from a service provider and linked the domain name to the webspace, typically an IP address. default email server is provded by the hosting service provider. i want to have my own email server at my office/home, and link it with domain name. i should be able to send and receive mails from ids like me@mydomain.com

To setup mail server you have to edit the mail exchange record (MX) in DNS for your domain. The best practise is mapping MX to subdomain (for example mail.domain.com) and adding address record (A) for mail.domain.com mapping this name to the ip addres of your mail server at home:

Name---Type--Resource data

domain.com NS nameserver

www CNAME hosting

domain.com MX mail.domain.com

mail A iP of your mail server at home

usually when you buy domain name you get access to e-mail server..you can setup at same place where you setup your domain(dns servers)

In your preffered email client open Mail, Options, Accounts, Settings, this differs from client to client, but is basically same.

then:

pop.mydomain.com.net

smtp.mydomain.com.net

imap.mydomain,com.com

and so on,pop3 or some such might be asked for, or smtp over imap may be used, contact your ISP and the mail controls at mydomain.com.

You can set up Eudora, its free now and open source, or Thundirbird to do this, you can also use Outlook Express, or gmail, or incerdimail.

first you need a public ip... the MX record should be added in d public DNS server... then you need to configure apllication like sendmail or postfix or microsoft exchange....