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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)

#281

Post by classichasclass »

Yetanfou wrote: post #80

I've run my own mail server ever since I got something resembling broadband internet in 1996. Back then spam was non-existent, Sendmail was the emperor without clothes about to be dethroned and I hacked sendmail.cf without needing to look at the the bible [1]. I've never regretted running my own server, nor have I ever contemplated moving to a hosted solution. Spam is not a problem either, Spamassassin in combination…

Ha. I, too, handwrote my sendmail.cf.

My wife won't let me have a neckbeard though.

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#282

Post by cpncrunch »

burgerdev wrote: post #262
_jal wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the same boat - been running my own mail since the 90s. I could understand complaints about lots of weird hoops to jump through to get mail from your server accepted elsewhere - that has become harder over time[1] - but there's a very short list of things that need to be done to avoid being hijacked. Mail server setup for the uninitiated does look a little daunting, especially if you're more accustomed to "all…

I've been running my mail server for 6 years now. Mail to Microsoft's servers (live.com, etc.) keeps ending up in the spam folder, even though spf, dkim and dmarc are set up and my IP has been clean for the entire period. The bright side is that I only notice this in the rare case of "mail to all contacts", since noone is on outlook.com these days.

Yes, live.com is a problem for us too. It seems they silently blacklist ip addresses and make it very difficult to get off that blacklist. There's a thread here about it with some of us trying to figure out how to solve this problem:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/oemail...

But other than that, running my own mail server hasn't been much of an issue. Set up sendmail, use public blacklists for spam control, and it pretty much runs without any intervention.

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#284

Post by bitexploder »

agentultra wrote: post #216
rsync wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"And then you're scrambling to figure out how the spammers managed to exploit your setup this time." ... " ... writing a MTA with the goal of minimizing configuration and being secure and resistant to attacks by default. " As a 20+ year UNIX sysadmin and fellow owner of my own email infrastructure for 18 of those, I am surprised to read this and am not even sure what you are talking about. Can you explain what you me…

To be fair I've been running my infrastructure for years and it's usually fine. The problem I have is that it's a pain in the ass to setup correctly and when things do go wrong it's really hard to figure out what's going on. > Can you explain what you mean by attacks and exploits from spammers? I haven't encountered a remote exploit (yet) but yes: accidentally running an open relay, backscattering, etc. You also have…

Dmarc helps when mail gets rejected.

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#285

Post by ef4 »

> Getting off GMail is one of the best ways to take back your data in the face of dragnet surveillance.

This just isn't true. You can host your own mail server and GMail will probably still end up hosting a large fraction of the email you read and write, because the people you correspond with are still using GMail.

(In the same vein, you can refuse to have a Facebook account but Facebook probably has a dossier on you anyway. Enough people you know have dumped their contacts into Facebook that they already know your place in the social graph.)

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#286

Post by syshum »

Spivak wrote: post #206
CaptSpify wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then normal users need to adjust their expectations. Email has never been assumed to be immediate. Iirc, its even in the spec

Of course not, like most things email is best-effort. But it's hard to blame users when for the last 10 years we've been able to send/receive email in <10s.

I feel sorry for you if you base everything on user expectations... I sure hope you do not work in professional IT if that is the case because if you do you must be one stress out person...

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#287

Post by sedachv »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #169

Running your own personal, non-commercial server may be just fine. But if you’re business is pumping out volumes of email, no amount of DMARC, DKIM, SPF, CFL participation and fighting to stay off IP blacklists will prevent you from eventually succumbing to the user that clicks the Junk button to delete their emails. This will tank your domain’s reputation and get your emails routed to Junk (or silently discarded) fo…

What is CFL participation?

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#288

Post by danieltillett »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #169

Running your own personal, non-commercial server may be just fine. But if you’re business is pumping out volumes of email, no amount of DMARC, DKIM, SPF, CFL participation and fighting to stay off IP blacklists will prevent you from eventually succumbing to the user that clicks the Junk button to delete their emails. This will tank your domain’s reputation and get your emails routed to Junk (or silently discarded) fo…

Yep. Basically the big email companies have outsourced their anti-spam filtering problem to the email service companies.

I used to run my own email server for around 15 years with minimal issues, but I gave up when my mail started disappearing into the hotmail/gmail/yahoo blackhole.

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#289

Post by zlynx »

perlgod wrote: post #272
mozumder wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. When you ask your ISP for a static-IP address, your service goes from Residential to a more expensive Business account, and they open up outgoing mail ports. (At least for Verizon FIOS that I'm on, pretty sure Comcast is same as well.) Cloud IP addresses are probably more problematic for spam blocklists.

Glad it works for you. My comcast connection is far too unreliable to ever rely on for email! Curious though, can you also set your own reverse DNS entry for your static ip? I’ve found many mail servers will reject your mail if rDNS records don’t match up.

I'm also running a server on a Comcast business service with a static IP. My service has been really stable. This must vary on area. Also it seems if you're on business class, the techs take you more seriously. When I did have some stability problems the tech they sent out did a few tests, then went to the entire first floor (5 units) of the condo building with big sticky notes telling them to schedule a service appointment or have their service blocked.

Getting reverse DNS was easy. Following the directions I found via Google I went into the Comcast business service forums, read their pinned posts and sent a PM to the current service guy. He set the reverse DNS for me. It took about a day.

Re: How to Run Your Own Mail Server (2017)

#290

Post by jaskerr »

mozumder wrote: post #73
perlgod wrote: post #27

Author here - happy to respond to any questions.

How much of this is common to a Mac OS Server mail setup?

Unfortunately, mail and mail-related services are being deprecated in macOS Server:

Prepare for changes to macOS Server https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208312

The services deprecated include davmail, dovecot and postfix. They say the changes are "to focus more on management of computers, devices, and storage."

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