As per the subject line, do most SMTP servers (as in systems 'out there' which send me mail) behave reasonably sensibly when my SMTP server is temporarily not functioning?
I currently have both a desktop machine *and* a small server machine which are on all the time. It's the server machine that receives my E-Mail. The only reason I have it configured this way is because I'm more likely to rebuild/reconfigure my desktop machine than the server machine and I felt that keeping my SMTP server online consistently was important.
However I'm wondering if the effort (and cost) of running two systems all the time is worth it. The other functions of the server system (DNS and CUPS) can easily be run on my desktop machine, occasinal downtime of those services is easily explained to other family members! :-)
If real world SMTP servers 'out there' will cope quite happily with my domain's MX machine being AWOL for several hours then I may as well put everything on the one server machine.
(Note it's only *my* E-Mail that is delivered by SMTP, all other family members do their own thing as in use Webmail, or IMAP, or whatever)