Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#161

Post by loup-vaillant » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 9:49 PM UTC

soneil wrote: post #81

It's worth checking whether you're running IPv6. It does become very relevant. e.g., SPF records need to include it, it must also have a good rDNS, etc. In particular, I know gmail hold IPv6 to higher standards. Some things (e.g. rDNS) that we traditionally treat as 'should', gmail will treat as 'must' over IPv6 - it's being treated as a chance to drop a lot of legacy leeway. I do run my own MTA. It's not high-mainte…

> My best advice is to choose a reputable host.

This sucks big time. We should be able to send email from fucking home, not beg an external, bigger guy to either do it for us (one's ISP, google…), or lend us a machine so we can do it from there (Amazon, OVH…).

Email providing is so concentrated right now it is starting so show signs of network effects —just like more recent (anti)social networks. This is not right.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#162

Post by downandout » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 9:53 PM UTC

mrb wrote: post #88

One little trick that I rarely see mentioned for working around the negative or neutral reputation your MTA's IP might have is that you can route your outgoing emails through another MTA that has a higher reputation. For example route them through smtp.gmail.com (or for other options see https://support.google.com/a/answer/176600?hl=en ). It does not mean you have to use Gmail. It does not mean you have to change you…

The only issue with this is Google's sending limit (which I believe is ~500 messages per day, perhaps it's even less through SMTP). That could be bad if you wish send an opt-in email newsletter, for example. Also, Google passes the X-originating-IP header on all mail sent through its SMTP servers (at least it did the last time I tried this), which can easily be a one way ticket to the spam box for all of your outgoing emails.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#163

Post by noinsight » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 9:55 PM UTC

pflanze wrote: post #150

noinsight wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest running OpenSMTPD over any of the alternatives, it's much easier to configure and should be/remain secure as it comes from the OpenBSD people (the audit from Qualys attests to that).

There was http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2015/q4/11 PS. maybe that's one of the vulnerabilities mentioned in the report (1). Anyway it's an argument for me to run Qmail/qpsmtpd instead. (1) https://www.qualys.com/2015/10/02/opensmtpd-audit-report.txt

Yeah those issues were found in the Qualys audit. They have been fixed so the codebase should only be stronger now.

I just wish we had something that wasn't written in C.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#164

Post by sliverstorm » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 9:56 PM UTC

Make sure you aren't delivering over IPv6. I had all my IPv4 rules set up, and mail worked fine - except delivering to gmail. Turns out I was delivering over IPv6. I wound up shutting off my IPv6 interface.

As a good netzien I should work to behave on IPv6, but it was just too much of a pita for my tiny, single user server which works fine on IPv4

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#165

Post by simon_acca » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #131

Nux wrote: post #59

It's absolutely possible to run an email server in 2016 and I encourage anyone capable to do so! Email is one of the bastions of the decentralised Internet and we should hang on to it. Every day more and more people are moving to Gmail/Hotmail/Outlook and while I do understand the reasons, it also puts more and more power into the hands of these providers and the little guy (us) gets more screwed (like marked as junk…

> Email is one of the bastions of the decentralised Internet and we should hang on to it. This. I hope someone will eventually create an "E-mail server in a box" package for Ubuntu LTS, so that more people can run their own E-mail. I'm not saying it has to be super-easy for everyone, just that it should avoid unnecessary chore work (like configuring postfix to always use TLS, or plugging postgrey into postfix).

As long as you know Docker, this is pretty much what you are asking: https://github.com/tomav/docker-mailserver. I use it in combination with the rainloop webmail client: https://github.com/jprjr/docker-rainloop.

Everything is configured with a single docker-compose, read about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11748036

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#166

Post by SixSigma » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 10:01 PM UTC

Your IP block assigned to domestic suppliers is probably the thing that kills you.

My VM in the ISP has no issues, but from home, blocked at lots of places.

What you can do is use your ISP as a mail sending relay.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#167

Post by seanp2k2 » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 10:04 PM UTC

jwr wrote: post #131

Nux wrote: post #59

It's absolutely possible to run an email server in 2016 and I encourage anyone capable to do so! Email is one of the bastions of the decentralised Internet and we should hang on to it. Every day more and more people are moving to Gmail/Hotmail/Outlook and while I do understand the reasons, it also puts more and more power into the hands of these providers and the little guy (us) gets more screwed (like marked as junk…

> Email is one of the bastions of the decentralised Internet and we should hang on to it. This. I hope someone will eventually create an "E-mail server in a box" package for Ubuntu LTS, so that more people can run their own E-mail. I'm not saying it has to be super-easy for everyone, just that it should avoid unnecessary chore work (like configuring postfix to always use TLS, or plugging postgrey into postfix).

The problem is that setting up an MTA that can deliver to gmail etc can't e.g. Be done (typically) on a dynamic IP like you'd have at home and the scripts running would have to interact with your registrar and/or DNS provider to properly configure DNS (unless it also sets up a nameserver, which would make assumptions about how the domain is / could be used).

There are a lot of moving parts, and being an email admin requires some maintenance like being vigilant about not allowing spam. An automated script to set it up for people who wouldn't know how to run it would be doing those people a disservice.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#168

Post by loup-vaillant » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 10:10 PM UTC

semanticist wrote: post #160

loup-vaillant wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. Why this over-reliance on IP based reputation and blacklist? Aren't Bayesian filters enough? Or maybe people don't know how "mark as junk" works?

This is at a level before 'mark as junk', where a mail provider will refuse to deliver your message at all - or potentially even refuse to accept it. The earlier the mail providers can detect/block spam the less resources they have to dedicate to storing and transmitting the spam.

Ah, so cost is the reason why the won't let the email through at all… All those people who mistakenly think email is free… (even gmail is not free: you pay for it by letting them spy on you and sending you targeted ads).

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#169

Post by Jaruzel » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 10:12 PM UTC

Adding in my 2p's worth of advice here as well. The big thing I think is your IP. Even if it is 'static', if you are running the MTA from your house, your IP will be marked as residential, and probably also still 'dynamic' (just made sticky by your ISP to your Router/Modem).

The best way to give your outgoing mail 'authority' is to relay it through a smarthost. Some ISPs offer this - All my outgoing mail from the Exchange server in my Garage routes through my ISPs smarthost - it's the only way I can be sure that the big webmail hosts (hotmail/outlook, gmail, yahoo) actually get the mails. If I try to route direct, the mails get blocked.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

#170

Post by johnrob » Sat, Aug 13, 2016, 10:15 PM UTC

jjnoakes wrote: post #134

PSA: If you run your own mail server and use that email address for password resets, please use a reputable hosting provider and dns provider, and turn on 2FA. Don't let that often overlooked weak point be the way every one of your accounts gets compromised. Once they have your email, they have everything that resets via that email domain.

Yes. Double yes. Came here to leave that exact comment. Here is a pretty bad war story: https://medium.com/@N/how-i-lost-my-50-000-twitter-username-...