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Self-host your mail server

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31–40 of 143 posts

Re: Self-host your mail server

#31

Post by EMAIL36245 »

I beg to differ on:

> but if your home internet checks these boxes, you can 100% host your own mailserver at home:

    Static IPv4 address (make sure it's not blacklisted)
    Not behind a CGNAT
    Ability to change the PTR record of your IP (usually though the support of your ISP)
    Ability to open common mailserver Ports (25,143,465,587,993)
Because above is only needed if you want to communicate with people using Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Fastmail, Proton etc (The monopoly).

For normal folks, they are better off using an alternate less privileged email service like email.riamu.io.

Re: Self-host your mail server

#32

Post by MattTheRealOne »

The biggest problem with self-hosting a mail server is reliably being able to send email and have it be delivered to the recipient. Something I have been thinking about setting up is self-hosting a dovecot server so that all of my emails that I receive are on my system, but using another provider for sending email. I don't send that many emails, so there is not much privacy loss in regards to a third-party being able to see my sent emails, but I still get the benefit of noone but me having access to my received emails.

Re: Self-host your mail server

#33

Post by Krei-se »

mmh0000 wrote: post #16

I ran my own self-hosted email server from 2008-ish to 2018, and I would highly recommend against doing it! Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap. I was running Postfix+Dovecot+Seive+SpamAssassin+Fail2ban+certbot+spf+dkim+reverse-ip+ It worked! Receiving email was overall pretty easy. I know I also did things the "hard way" by ad-hoccing all that together, and today there are a lot more out-of-the-box solu…

you can check your delivery rate with services there are lots that are free to check and they also offer to "warm" your reputation. I have not done that yet (money!) and outside this:

- Outlook.com consumer mail addresses

you can still get >99% delivery rate if you have spf, dkim and all the new cool stuff.

So no, please DO NOT recommend against doing it because ONLY if mail stays a decentralized service providers will stay forced to not blacklist everything but other large providers.

Re: Self-host your mail server

#34

Post by dwedge »

dangerboysteve wrote: post #13

What hosting / VPS companies do you recommend? Finding one which allows you to run a mail server is some work.

A lot of them will let you if you ask, for instance even ionos or ovh. Digital ocean have a blanket ban on port 25 ipv6 but I haven't seen a reason to use them for a decade now. +1 for mythic beasts

Re: Self-host your mail server

#35

Post by Greed »

mmh0000 wrote: post #16

I ran my own self-hosted email server from 2008-ish to 2018, and I would highly recommend against doing it! Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap. I was running Postfix+Dovecot+Seive+SpamAssassin+Fail2ban+certbot+spf+dkim+reverse-ip+ It worked! Receiving email was overall pretty easy. I know I also did things the "hard way" by ad-hoccing all that together, and today there are a lot more out-of-the-box solu…

Will second this, as someone that took the same path. Alternatives like Fastmail are so, so cheap when compared to the headache of building, maintaining, and troubleshooting a DIY stack. For something as fundamental as email you really want to choose the solution that gives you NO problems, rather than some solvable but troublesome problems at regular intervals.

Just too critical of a component in most people's lives to accept any level of unknowns in.

Re: Self-host your mail server

#36

Post by eljimmy »

I've been self-hosting for 20 years now - a few years ago I switched to using Mail-in-a-Box (https://mailinabox.email/) which makes management a lot easier than configuring each service manually.

It definitely requires some effort but once you've got it up and running it's pretty hands off. The only issues I've ever had are expiring certs but I've fixed that by configuring auto-renewals and it's all good now.

Ensuring your source IP isn't blacklisted is probably the single most important factor. I had to request a new IP from Linode where my server runs as the one it was originally assigned had a bad reputation.

Re: Self-host your mail server

#37

Post by tenacious_tuna »

I'd love to self-host a mailing list, or that protonmail or fastmail offered listserv like functionality. It feels fairly intimidating to hoist my own mail server and listserv on top of that. It feels like there's too much domain-specific knowledge one needs to have to reliably debug and maintain it: DKIM, spam management, certbot, fail2ban, blah blah blah.

Re: Self-host your mail server

#38

Post by JoshTriplett »

dandersch wrote: post #26

Before self-hosting your own, first get a domain and just point it at a mail provider that allows custom domains. It will cost, but so will a VPS. I suspect a lot of DIY homelab types would have most of their needs met with just that setup: - you get the vanity email address - you can switch email providers (including self-hosting later on) - you can have ~unlimited aliases (depends on the provider) Most of the setup…

Agreed. Never use a provider-specific email domain, when for a tiny amount per year you can have an email at your own domain that stays the same no matter who your email provider is.

Re: Self-host your mail server

#40

Post by tripleee »

mmh0000 wrote: post #16

I ran my own self-hosted email server from 2008-ish to 2018, and I would highly recommend against doing it! Especially when Fastmail and Proton are so cheap. I was running Postfix+Dovecot+Seive+SpamAssassin+Fail2ban+certbot+spf+dkim+reverse-ip+ It worked! Receiving email was overall pretty easy. I know I also did things the "hard way" by ad-hoccing all that together, and today there are a lot more out-of-the-box solu…

I take a middle path. Self-host receiving mail, and use smtp2go.com for outgoing
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