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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)

#41

Post by agentultra »

I run my own mail infrastructure. To say the least I wouldn't recommend it even to my worst enemies. It's horrible.

Actually it's fine until it's not. Then your email doesn't work and you could be missing out on important communications. And then you're scrambling to figure out how the spammers managed to exploit your setup this time. And you have to learn a tonne of crap in order to manage it... and the text files! Configuration... configuration everywhere. Obscure configuration. Configuration that has real consequences and causes spooky action at a distance. Configuration that will soon be exploited in strange ways.

I was so frustrated the last time my mail server went down that I started writing an SMTP protocol handler in Haskell with the intent of writing a MTA with the goal of minimizing configuration and being secure and resistant to attacks by default. So that hopefully more people can run their own infrastructure without prematurely aging. I dunno how useful it will be to others but at least it will keep my gray hairs at bay, I hope, when it's ready for use.

Until then though we need more guides like this for us poor souls who do go down this route. There are way too many out-dated guides awash in the sea of information.

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

#42

Post by apple4ever »

Torgo wrote: post #7

I started running my own email server around 2014. I am using every mitigation I can find, but I still get an unending torrent of spam that slips through. If tweaking spam filters and deleting spam is your idea of fun, then run your own email server.

Spamassassin plus DNSBL works great for me. Before I enabled that, I would get 100+ spam emails a day. Now I barely get one a month.

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

#43

Post by JepZ »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #5

I'd like to run a mail server on a jailbroken iPhone. The use case is to transfer arbitrary files over a local hotspot. I tried installing from the Apple TV tutorial, but it put my iPhone in a boot loop. http://ios-webstack.tk/imap Just a chance, but are there any iOS jailbreakers here who could advise?

What do you mean with 'mail server'? Postfix? Dovecot?

Running a Postfix on anything else than a dedicated server with a static IP is a pretty bad idea (half the internet will reject the emails you send).

And to do all that just to transfer some files is probably like using an iPhone as a fly swatter.

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

#44

Post by sleavey »

deadbunny wrote: post #31

> Before we dive in, an important caveat: You will become a sysadmin of your own mail server. This for me is the deal breaker. I say this as a sysadmin. It's all well and good running a single server but if that shits the bed then you have to deal with it immediately. So to run something that doesn't require 24/7 support I now have to run a cluster of servers. I'll also need something to manage those servers like sal…

I run my own mail server, mostly for fun and to learn how it all works, but so far, after a few teething problems, it works pretty well. I don't have any critical services registered with addresses from this server; I use it for random websites (like Hacker News newsletters), cron job outputs on my server, Stack Exchange, etc., and as a way to back up my Gmail account remotely. The great thing is that I can dish out unique email address to each service, and have them all end up at the same place, so I know who sold my data when I get spam.

If the server falls over during the night, then meh... I'll probably fix it reasonably quickly if I'm not on a beach somewhere, and the sending server is supposed to try again anyway.

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

#45

Post by Mister_Snuggles »

deadbunny wrote: post #31

> Before we dive in, an important caveat: You will become a sysadmin of your own mail server. This for me is the deal breaker. I say this as a sysadmin. It's all well and good running a single server but if that shits the bed then you have to deal with it immediately. So to run something that doesn't require 24/7 support I now have to run a cluster of servers. I'll also need something to manage those servers like sal…

I started to go down the running my own mail server road and started to worry about every one of these issues. I decided that my time is worth more than the cost of something like FastMail.

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

#46

Post by uhhhhhhh »

deadbunny wrote: post #31

> Before we dive in, an important caveat: You will become a sysadmin of your own mail server. This for me is the deal breaker. I say this as a sysadmin. It's all well and good running a single server but if that shits the bed then you have to deal with it immediately. So to run something that doesn't require 24/7 support I now have to run a cluster of servers. I'll also need something to manage those servers like sal…

As a sysadmin I completely agree. There are a few things I don't run personally because I want them to "always" work, and I can't drop my professional responsibilities to fix my personal email setup during working hours, but at the same time do not want my personal email down for long periods of time or at all.

Reliability and delivery consistency is more valuable then pretending your personal email server actually protects you from dragnet surveillance (in my opinion). The truth is every other smtp server you communicate with could be compromised, and if what you're sending is that sensitive, encrypt it at rest, not just in transmission.

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

#49

Post by ericcholis »

agentultra wrote: post #41

I run my own mail infrastructure. To say the least I wouldn't recommend it even to my worst enemies. It's horrible. Actually it's fine until it's not. Then your email doesn't work and you could be missing out on important communications. And then you're scrambling to figure out how the spammers managed to exploit your setup this time. And you have to learn a tonne of crap in order to manage it... and the text files!…

Same experience here. Previously I maintained a Merak/IceWarp mail server. The "idea" was great, they provided a nice interface for a small organization (15ish people). But, it became an uphill battle very quickly.

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

#50

Post by uhhhhhhh »

icebraining wrote: post #40
deadbunny wrote: post #31

> Before we dive in, an important caveat: You will become a sysadmin of your own mail server. This for me is the deal breaker. I say this as a sysadmin. It's all well and good running a single server but if that shits the bed then you have to deal with it immediately. So to run something that doesn't require 24/7 support I now have to run a cluster of servers. I'll also need something to manage those servers like sal…

It's all well and good running a single server but if that shits the bed then you have to deal with it immediately. Well, that depends on your needs. SMTP will keep retrying, so you won't lose any emails, you just might not be able to access them immediately. For my personal email, this is perfectly OK. Not that it ever happened, in my six years of running Exim + Dovecot, but that may have just been luck.

smtp will eventually give up retrying, and if you're not willing to "always" respond within a few hours, you're going to lose emails.
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