> Or do I need to concern myself with IP reputations still? IP reputation relates to the receiver (usually the big web mail providers) deciding an email is spa

> Or do I need to concern myself with IP reputations still? IP reputation relates to the receiver (usually the big web mail providers) deciding an email is spam based on the IP. For your own receiving of emails, it should make no difference. > Do I care about spam? This is not a question we can answer for you. > How hackable are email servers A modern Postfix install, provided you don't miss-configure it, is pretty secure overall. The defaults start out on the "secure" side, so you do have to undo the wrong default to have a problem. > What are the gotchas for managing your own email server? Inbound deliverability? Up time? spam / bots? updates and monitoring? disk space? For a 'deliver only' server, you should have no issues. Email is based on a store-and-forward architecture, and was designed to work in the days of UUCP data transfers, so if you are down for a day or two, inbound emails just wait until you are back up and then arrive. Spammers will spam, it is what they do. Eventually one of the emails you allocate will find its way into a spam list and you'll get some requests for accepting DHL shippments or be asked to help the crown prince transfer $100MM out of country. Being able to do easy updates makes the eventual management easier. With 500G disks selling for 25.98 (https://www.newegg.com/seagate-barracuda-st500dm009-500gb/p/N82E16822179011 https://www.newegg.com/seagate-barracuda-st500dm009-500gb/p/...) disk space is not likely to be a big concern unless you plan to receive a lot of giant email attachments. > I'm curious if anyone else has thought about this and set it up for themselves, I've self hosted my own email since circa 1998-1999. Doing so is not the "big scary monster" many of the "don't do that" blog posts make it out to be, but then again I've been a Linux user since somewhere circa the 0.99 kernel revision and am a heavy CLI user, so what I consider "relatively trivial" others might consider "impossibly hard".