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Although the conventional wisdom of the day seems to be it's better/easier to outsource your mail servers, setting up one yourself is not hard, if you're not ha

by senko 16y ago

Although the conventional wisdom of the day seems to be it's better/easier to outsource your mail servers, setting up one yourself is not hard, if you're not handling huge amounts of mail and already have a system you can put your MX on.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
GoodIntentions 16y ago
Outsourcing email - read the fine print. DDOS Last time I looked at sourcing a store and forward inbound proxy, one company I eliminated (not linking to them on purpose) had buried in their user agreement some heavy open-ended penalties should your server suffer a DDOS. Unlikely to occur, but potentially bankruptcy if it actually occurs. SPAM The spam penalties were not as bad, but something that could potentially get a legitimate server unplugged since they were ultimately complaint driven rather than based on the way you were actually used/mis-used the mail server. There was a fair bit to read iirc, but it was worth 'wasting' my time in this event. I said "eff it" and configured a sendmail/opensolaris box instead.
Travis 16y ago
There are definitely reasons to run your own mail server. However, I've found (in my 7 years as a linux sysadmin/dev) that email is one of the harder services to setup, compared to http, database, etc. It's the only service I use a GUI for to administer. Something about having to compile the aliases, and I get confused with the spamassasin settings.
- gog 16y ago
  What GUI are you using? Compiling aliases? I guess you are not using virtual domains and sql storage? If there was one GUI for configuration and management of every service mentioned in the book would you consider switching and paying a small fee for such a tool?
  - Travis 16y ago
    I had an old mac server, so I use Apple's gui. TBH, I don't even know if its sendmail or postfix under the hood. Never even got started using virtual domains. I just run emails for one domain, so it never sounded like I should setup the virtual ones. I can't envision a situation where I would really need to do anything sophisticated with an email server, when I wouldn't just use google apps. I can do the basic "send and receive" email from my server, and I was able to let my gmail send through that (removing the "on behalf of" header). But other than that I'm probably a hosted email guy all the way. I've never spent any money on email stuff or been focused on it, so I don't have any feel for costs.

by senko 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

GoodIntentions 16y ago

Outsourcing email - read the fine print. DDOS Last time I looked at sourcing a store and forward inbound proxy, one company I eliminated (not linking to them on purpose) had buried in their user agreement some heavy open-ended penalties should your server suffer a DDOS. Unlikely to occur, but potentially bankruptcy if it actually occurs. SPAM The spam penalties were not as bad, but something that could potentially get a legitimate server unplugged since they were ultimately complaint driven rather than based on the way you were actually used/mis-used the mail server. There was a fair bit to read iirc, but it was worth 'wasting' my time in this event. I said "eff it" and configured a sendmail/opensolaris box instead.

Travis 16y ago

There are definitely reasons to run your own mail server. However, I've found (in my 7 years as a linux sysadmin/dev) that email is one of the harder services to setup, compared to http, database, etc. It's the only service I use a GUI for to administer. Something about having to compile the aliases, and I get confused with the spamassasin settings.

gog 16y ago
What GUI are you using? Compiling aliases? I guess you are not using virtual domains and sql storage? If there was one GUI for configuration and management of every service mentioned in the book would you consider switching and paying a small fee for such a tool?
- Travis 16y ago
  I had an old mac server, so I use Apple's gui. TBH, I don't even know if its sendmail or postfix under the hood. Never even got started using virtual domains. I just run emails for one domain, so it never sounded like I should setup the virtual ones. I can't envision a situation where I would really need to do anything sophisticated with an email server, when I wouldn't just use google apps. I can do the basic "send and receive" email from my server, and I was able to let my gmail send through that (removing the "on behalf of" header). But other than that I'm probably a hosted email guy all the way. I've never spent any money on email stuff or been focused on it, so I don't have any feel for costs.