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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)

#81

Post by ams6110 »

linsomniac wrote: post #39

How to run your own mail server: Don't. How to run your own mail server (for experts): Don't. I say this as someone who has run my own mail server for 20+ years. Now, if you absolutely have to get off Google, and the other available hosted options don't work for you, then this article looks like a good start. I'd add roundcube for web access and letsencrypt for SSL. One thing you'll never really get, in my experience…

I run OpenSMTPD. It delivers my mail to a maildir. I read it in emacs. It's pretty simple. But not everyone's cup of tea.

If I had to worry about IMAP, Webmail, etc. I wouldn't run my own.

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

#82

Post by mobweb »

mrb wrote: post #59
sleavey wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

« The great thing is that I can dish out unique email address » That's the number one reason I would like to run my own server. (And, no, the Gmail trick of adding "+foo" to the username doesn't satisfy me because spammers know this trick and can strip it.)

Couldn't you just setup a domain with an email hosting provider and then turn on catch-all for that domain? For me I can just use any email @my-domain and it will be forwarded to my actual email address.

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

#83

Post by philrw »

Looking at that postfix main.cf gave me flashbacks and not in a good way. Google can have it. Or ProtonMail. Running my own mail server didn't pay enough ($0) for the complaints I got from its users (family). I'll focus on VoIP PBX and home automation until someone gobbles that up too.

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

#84

Post by perlgod »

Jaruzel wrote: post #61

Slightly tangential, but is there something for RSpamd, where it can be run as just a blind mail relay? I.E. like this: Internet Email (SMTP) -> [MTA + Rspamd] -> [Real MTA + Inboxes] I ask because I've got a mail server system I'm happy with, but just want to bolt a better anti-spam filtering system on in front of it. Thanks.

I believe it would work fine, configure rspamd as a milter on the first hop and relayhost everything to "Real MTA".

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

#85

Post by dboreham »

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.

It could be worse : the spam filter you have no control over and no insight into what it is up to can vaporize that important new customer lead email that was going to make you $$$

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

#86

Post by brandon272 »

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…

What do you estimate has been your total investment of time in running your own mail server?

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

#87

Post by codingdave »

I've run my own mail for about 15 years. Just recently stopped.There was nothing wrong with the process, it worked. But I thought about how much time I've spent on running my own domain and email over the last couple decades, and added up what it got me over those years... and the value just wasn't there.

I know the article is concerned with owning your own data, and I appreciate the point. But finding a mail provider that meets your needs is, IMO, a better way to spend your time than just saying "Gmail isn't good for me, so I'll do my own."

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

#88

Post by yosamino »

lucb1e wrote: post #25

> on FreeBSD using Postfix, Dovecot, Rspamd, and LDAP. That seems like an awful amount of work / overkill. This is not a good introduction for a normal geek, and die-hard open source fans will figure it out without too much trouble anyway. Postfix is not the best choice for novices, FreeBSD is not the most well-supported/documented system just because it's not as popular as some others, and a directory service should…

> Postfix is not the best choice for novices,

I'll give you that in general, mail servers are not for novices, and they have a huge array of configuration options, but Postfix is by a wide margin the best piece of software that I've come across the last couple of years, and I've been using it for a long time because of that.

It's reliable, it works exactly as documented, it's up to date, it's documentation is excellent, and it's community helpful, if overly precise - but then that's exactly what makes it so good.

I've literally never come across any problem with it, that turned out to be problem of postfix.

I can't say that for any other piece of software that I know.

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

#89

Post by [deleted] »

lisper wrote: post #60
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!…

Heh, I have had the exact opposite experience. My mail setup has been stable and reliable for years. (I'm a little bit afraid to report this because one possible explanation is that I simply have not been on any serious hacker's radar screen.) I'm not doing anything fancy: just postfix+dovecot, gray listing using a custom milter I wrote in Python, and Spam Sieve running client-side on my Mac.

[deleted]

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

#90

Post by floren »

Mister_Snuggles wrote: post #56
apple4ever wrote: post #48

This isn't bad. I ended up creating an Ansible role to do it for me, and it works great. I thought about Fastmail, but its too expensive when you want to do more than one email address or domain. I run mine on a $5 server from DigitalOcean.

Every time a thread about running your own email server comes up I think "Oh yeah, I was going to set up FastMail for my domain" The current pricing[0] seems to let you have 100 domains plus 600 aliases[1] for $5/mo. I've got this thought that I will create aliases for every different thing I sign up for and use them to track who's selling my email address to who. I think that a domain plus aliases will do the trick…

So I can't quite parse it out from the page, maybe one of the Fastmail users can tell me.

I can set up 100 domains and 600 aliases, but if I want my wife to have access to hername@mydomain.com, does she need her own $5/mo account?

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