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How to run your own mail server (2017)

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Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#91
post #71

The key to get high delivery rates to GMail and Office 365 is to setup DMARC. When you have a proper DMARC configuration (and at least SPF) your delivery problems will suddenly go away. Hosting your own mail server is not rocket science, but you need to have solid sysadmin skills and a good understanding of email as a whole. If anyone is interested in doing this: Start simple with only Postfix and Dovecot, don't use…

[deleted]

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#92
post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

Don't be so angry and negative. If you try, you might actually succeed. You just need some patience and perseverance.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#93
post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

I've run our email server for the last 7 years. Don't have any trouble with gmail.

Setting up was a bit of hassle, but since it was up, I don't do anything with it.

Occasionally I will get the odd notification that a (usually German for some reason) email address doesn't like our domain. But the major providers, never had a problem.

No idea why we haven't had a problem, I didn't know what I was doing at the time (still don't) just followed an online guide. From memory, spf, dkim which I think is all pretty basic things to setup when setting up a mail server and all guides cover it.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#94
I've had a relatively trouble-free experience running my own email server for years by just setting up outgoing email to relay through through the gandi SMTP I got with my domain registration. Email providers don't verify the the reputation of what they want to send to very rigorously, so I don't have any problem receiving my mail.

It depends on why you want to run an email server, I suppose. I just didn't want google collecting, analyzing, and indefinitely storing my incoming mail (left gmail).

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#95
post #2

Always nice to see this posted. Previously discussed in 2017: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16238937

This topic (though not always this particular article) seems to come up on HN every 6-9 months, and the discussion is ALWAYS the same: "Yeah, you can, but you'll have to deal with X, Y, and Z. Probably not worth it for most people but interesting to know that you can."

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#96
post #71

The key to get high delivery rates to GMail and Office 365 is to setup DMARC. When you have a proper DMARC configuration (and at least SPF) your delivery problems will suddenly go away. Hosting your own mail server is not rocket science, but you need to have solid sysadmin skills and a good understanding of email as a whole. If anyone is interested in doing this: Start simple with only Postfix and Dovecot, don't use…

> Hosting your own mail server is not rocket science, but you need to have solid sysadmin skills and a good understanding of email as a whole.

Not really. I had neither and got it up and running. Sure I had some issues, but as long as you have some competence, most things can be sorted out / figured out.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#97
post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

(I'm the author of TFA.)

I have never had this issue. Generally the issue is either IP reputation of your server (common with VPS providers if you get a recycled IP of a previous spammer) or your domain name.

Otherwise you are probably just unlucky enough to tickle the spam-prevention mechanisms in the almighty "algorithm" run by $BIGMAILER.

I keep one "normie" email address at a $BIGMAILER for situations like this, but at this point in my life I mostly just shrug if some big advertising/surveillance company's email system won't deliver my mail, I just won't email that person.

Be the change you want to see and all that.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#98
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing one yourself is it's own fun project!

Fun is a very curious way of putting it, considering how batshit crazy IMAP is. The rest of the involved email standards are also a huge dumpster fire. I'll let Ricardo Signes do the talking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JENdgiAPD6c

Why would you need to deal with IMAP at all for a webmail client? If the mail server is the one hosting the webmail frontend, you could read the Maildir or mbox (or whatever you're using to store emails) directly. IMAP's only really relevant for locally-installed clients (i.e. the exact thing webmail's supposed to replace).

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#99
post #21
post #11

EVERYONE did this for decades. Then EVERYONE stopped because it's awful. Modern ISPs don't like SMTP floating around, (DKIM, DMARC, SPF) are a pain to maintain over time, exploits will happen, and your free off-the-shelf virus and spam filters suck compared to the big companies seeing billions of messages per day.

Most ISP don't care about it. But there are certain enterprises that know almost nothing about email, they employ "specialized tools" that scan and classify incoming email (read Symantec whatever) and make evereyone's lives harder.

It's not that they dont know or don't care - it's that not being super aggressive with filtering caused people to almost abandon email a decade ago because spam became unbearable for most people.

Those "specialized tools" make email viable. Without it, everyone would be spoofing everything and you wouldn't use email anymore.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#100
post #77
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had my own mail server running for close to a year after which i gave up because i started seeing issues delivering mail to gmail and apple mail accounts. I had to keep tinkering with the DKIM/DMARC/SPF entries to make sure i'm compliant with gmail/outlook/etc. At somepoint i gave up because it wasn't worth the investment of time. FWIW, i used mail cow [0], which was a delight to setup and use. And it comes bundled…

Still running my mailcow. I don't care if people don't get my mail. I can show them that i handed the over to their server - everything else is their concern. At least legally. If you can't read my mail cause you misconfigured your spam filter I can't help.

> I don't care if people don't get my mail

This is the type of nonsense I expect from HN. Well done.

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