Dan Cowsill wrote:
> However, I would very much like to have my very own email
> server under my own domain name.

You should really have a static public IP address for that.

> So what I'm asking you guys for is documentation, software packages,
> recommended setups, anything you can add.  I am not looking for an all
> in one HOWTO (and don't really expect to find one with such a
> complicated process) and I am willing to RTFM when necessary.

Personally, I'm a qmail person, and he "Life with qmail" documentation
is pretty good:

  http://www.lifewithqmail.org/lwq.html

The package name for qmail has changed recently under Gentoo, so you
would emerge netqmail instead of qmail. There are many different mta
softwares out there. I would suggest trying a few of them, and see which
one seems to fit your thought process the best. For me it's qmail, but
you might be more of an exim or postfix or (god forbid) sendmail person.

Good luck!

-Sean