9 ms·

Ask HN: What do you use for your mailhost?

5 points by Sealy 13y ago

rdl 13y ago
I self host (work: Kerio (ironically, hosted on a Mac, although if I set it up again, probably on a VM on ubuntu or bsd); personal, homebrew postfix, procmail, z-push, ...) on ubuntu. mutt is my preferred MUA, although I've tried Mail.app and use the iOS mail client too. mbsync to sync maildirs over imap for laptop/desktop machines; exchange activesync for mobile where I want push. I set up DKIM and SPF and enforce TLS internally (and have real certs and TLS = "may" on the edge). Over the next year, I'd like to figure out a way to require TLS on certain domains, and maybe set up some kind of WoT and maybe even a standard for how to do that. I'd probably set up/run mail for people if they paid reasonable amounts. $50/yr/mailbox isn't really a reasonable amount. $500/yr/mailbox isn't, either (from the other direction). So maybe about $120-240/yr/mailbox + $100-250/domain.
- Sealy 13y ago
  What are your thoughts on Google's corporate mail service? http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html $5 a month / $50 a year.
  - rdl 13y ago
    Right, that's specifically why I said "$50/yr is too little". I would never use Google for my mail (I do have a gmail account for when necessary, but I hate using it). They're probably more technically competent than most shitty mail hosters, but from a privacy/security perspective, outsourcing your mail to a company which will happily turn it over seems like a bad choice. The only way I'd outsource my mail is to someone who can operate the server but not see the contents; this is technically difficult but could be done (relatively straightforward if you're willing to pay enough for dedicated hardware; conceivable with a better VM system someday). Ideally also with options in free countries like Hong Kong and Switzerland (which I don't currently have). For a regulated US company who was fully at risk to the USG already, Google Mail might be an ok choice. You still end up with the potential for civil discovery, but a document retention policy (i.e. destruction policy) of 6mo or less would address that, and Google does that for hosted mail if you want.
dangrossman 13y ago
Rackspace Mail. $2/mo/mailbox, 24/7/365 support, 100% uptime SLA, big mailboxes, configurable backups, good spam filter. I use IMAP and native clients for reading/composing.
- ElongatedTowel 13y ago
  If only there wasn't a minimum of five mailboxes.
  - dangrossman 13y ago
    $10/month is an absurdly cheap amount to pay for a professional service.
    - Sealy 13y ago
      Agreed. This and google's offering seem the most professional.
mike-cardwell 13y ago
Self host. Exim for SMTP, Dovecot for IMAP. I use a number of clients depending on circumstances, Evolution, Thunderbird, K-9 Mail and Mutt.
dripton 13y ago
Dreamhost. Since 2000, when they were the cheapest IMAP provider. I do have to click through SSL errors sometimes (because reverse DNS doesn't match forward DNS), and they broke my procmail setup when they upgraded something a few years ago, but I'm mostly happy with them.

5 points by Sealy 13y ago

rdl 13y ago

I self host (work: Kerio (ironically, hosted on a Mac, although if I set it up again, probably on a VM on ubuntu or bsd); personal, homebrew postfix, procmail, z-push, ...) on ubuntu. mutt is my preferred MUA, although I've tried Mail.app and use the iOS mail client too. mbsync to sync maildirs over imap for laptop/desktop machines; exchange activesync for mobile where I want push. I set up DKIM and SPF and enforce TLS internally (and have real certs and TLS = "may" on the edge). Over the next year, I'd like to figure out a way to require TLS on certain domains, and maybe set up some kind of WoT and maybe even a standard for how to do that. I'd probably set up/run mail for people if they paid reasonable amounts. $50/yr/mailbox isn't really a reasonable amount. $500/yr/mailbox isn't, either (from the other direction). So maybe about $120-240/yr/mailbox + $100-250/domain.

Sealy 13y ago
What are your thoughts on Google's corporate mail service? http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html $5 a month / $50 a year.
- rdl 13y ago
  Right, that's specifically why I said "$50/yr is too little". I would never use Google for my mail (I do have a gmail account for when necessary, but I hate using it). They're probably more technically competent than most shitty mail hosters, but from a privacy/security perspective, outsourcing your mail to a company which will happily turn it over seems like a bad choice. The only way I'd outsource my mail is to someone who can operate the server but not see the contents; this is technically difficult but could be done (relatively straightforward if you're willing to pay enough for dedicated hardware; conceivable with a better VM system someday). Ideally also with options in free countries like Hong Kong and Switzerland (which I don't currently have). For a regulated US company who was fully at risk to the USG already, Google Mail might be an ok choice. You still end up with the potential for civil discovery, but a document retention policy (i.e. destruction policy) of 6mo or less would address that, and Google does that for hosted mail if you want.

dangrossman 13y ago

Rackspace Mail. $2/mo/mailbox, 24/7/365 support, 100% uptime SLA, big mailboxes, configurable backups, good spam filter. I use IMAP and native clients for reading/composing.

ElongatedTowel 13y ago
If only there wasn't a minimum of five mailboxes.
- dangrossman 13y ago
  $10/month is an absurdly cheap amount to pay for a professional service.
  - Sealy 13y ago
    Agreed. This and google's offering seem the most professional.

mike-cardwell 13y ago

Self host. Exim for SMTP, Dovecot for IMAP. I use a number of clients depending on circumstances, Evolution, Thunderbird, K-9 Mail and Mutt.

dripton 13y ago

Dreamhost. Since 2000, when they were the cheapest IMAP provider. I do have to click through SSL errors sometimes (because reverse DNS doesn't match forward DNS), and they broke my procmail setup when they upgraded something a few years ago, but I'm mostly happy with them.