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

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

#111

Post by a3n »

madez wrote: post #105
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…

I disagree with you. I consider email legacy technology because of its reliance upon DNS and static IP addresses. These two requirements make hosting email unnecessarily costly.

What replaces email?

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

#113

Post by dsr_ »

TheMog wrote: post #29

I've been running my own MTA for about 15 years now, so it's definitely possible without spending the majority of one's waking hours to do so. Even when I switched mail server IPs twice over the last few years I didn't run into the issues you ran into. A large part of it depends on where you run it - if you, say, run it on your home Internet connection that's usually an immediate strike against you because of the ins…

I've been running my own mail server off of a residential connection since 1998, so... 18 years. I do pay for a static IP, and I switched ISPs away from Comcast (who had inherited me as a customer) when they abruptly started to filter inbound port 25 and claimed I had a malware infestation.

For years it was qmail, but when I wanted to use SMTP/SSL as much as possible, switching to Postfix was easier than maintaining all the qmail patches.

I switched over to Let's Encrypt certs several months ago, and those have been working out quite well for me.

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

#114

Post by noinsight »

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…

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).

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

#115

Post by thomasjames »

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…

I recently ran into issues with the PTR on a mail server and did the lazy/unsustainable move of just disabling IPv6. Wish I had found this post before!

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

#116

Post by X86BSD »

noinsight wrote: post #114
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…

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).

Yeah I'll have to disagree here. I beat my head against this horribly documented MTA just trying to get virtual users to work with a relay host. I gave up after three days of slitting my wrists trying to get it to work. It's horribly documented, getting help out of the obsd folks is like getting blood from a turnip, but if it works for you great! But I would never agree it's easier to configure or has better documentation than postfix.

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

#118

Post by virtualio »

The problem is that your ISP has named your home connection with a DNS name that probably doesn't match with the domain name that you're trying to recieve and send mail for. There's a workaround by adding a vsp text record to your DNS. But that's no guarantee that all mayor mail providers will accept mail from your mailserver as unmarked (rather they'll end up as spam in your spam folder)

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

#119

Post by lucb1e »

cmdrfred wrote: post #103
lucb1e wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Digital ocean droplet $10 a month I don't know whether OP uses a home connection, but that makes a big difference. It has some pros and cons: A VPS (with its dedicated IP address): - Usually has a good reputation, though you might have bad luck. Switch early on when you notice this. Doing it later just nullifies any trouble you had building its reputation. - Is hosted somewhere in the cloud. (I used to hate the ter…

There is also a third option, set up a OpenVPN server and connect the home hosted SMTP server to the internet though it, gives you the best of both worlds I figure.

That might actually be a good idea! I wonder whether a hosting provider or ISP is more reliable in not snooping SMTP traffic, but assuming that is equal, it sounds like the best of both worlds indeed.
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