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Ask HN: Do you run your own mail server?

1 points by vonklaus 11y ago

alanpost 11y ago
Why do you ask?
- vonklaus 11y ago
  I want to run my own mail server, but have never done it. I was hoping to see how many people themselves do, and the potential pitfalls.
  - alanpost 11y ago
    I found it much easier to start by using a store-and-forward service to receive email and a relay service to deliver mail. A store and forward service will accept delivery of your incoming mail, do the necessary spam filtering and blacklisting, and then deliver messages to your mail system. The relay service will accept deliver of your outgoing mail, do any necessary validation, and see it to it's final destination. Running a mail system involves a lot of moving parts, each of them requiring study and practice to competently operate. It can be difficult to deal with every piece all at once if you're just starting. The store and forward and relay services let me build out mail infrastructure without having to expose it directly to the internet, which let me deal with deployment in a much more controlled manner. Why do you want to run your own mail server? It's hard to avoid potential pitfalls without knowing what you need to accomplish.
    - vonklaus 11y ago
      I am really broke and have a lot of debt. I need a myemail@mydomain.com and all of them cost money. I have ~$250 Digital Ocean credit so I have free VPS. Also, seems like a good way to learn, although it might not be worth it as this problem has really been solved well. edit: thanks for the information though. I saw some of these services when i was doing cursory research. This was pretty helpful.
      - alanpost 11y ago
        Use a burner domain and enjoy yourself, it's a good learning experience. It is, as you yourself indicate, a pretty good waste of time too.
ac29a 11y ago
yes, its a postfix mta with dovecot and sasl/clamav/postfixadmin set up to use a mysql backend and suite b encryption. kinda a pita to configure, esp for production, but very reliable and secure.
ac29a 11y ago
theres plenty of how-to step by step knowledge bases out there, google 'how to set up postfix with dovecot'.. i think i used the gentoo wiki and copypasta'd much of it.. it takes a bit of time to set up a decent mx server, in addition to configuration, you gotta set up a db, generate/sign crypto certs, maybe do a little web-dev to make shit easy to admin.. with regards to this you rly dont want anything on a publically facing ip.. but once again tons of how-to for config out there
- vonklaus 11y ago
  Do you remember which guide you used? I think, at this point, I am willing to spend the time to configure it. I have free hosting, I want to set up a few emails at my domain without paying anything other than hosting.
ac29a 11y ago
helps if you run your own dns as well

1 points by vonklaus 11y ago

alanpost 11y ago

Why do you ask?

vonklaus 11y ago
I want to run my own mail server, but have never done it. I was hoping to see how many people themselves do, and the potential pitfalls.
- alanpost 11y ago
  I found it much easier to start by using a store-and-forward service to receive email and a relay service to deliver mail. A store and forward service will accept delivery of your incoming mail, do the necessary spam filtering and blacklisting, and then deliver messages to your mail system. The relay service will accept deliver of your outgoing mail, do any necessary validation, and see it to it's final destination. Running a mail system involves a lot of moving parts, each of them requiring study and practice to competently operate. It can be difficult to deal with every piece all at once if you're just starting. The store and forward and relay services let me build out mail infrastructure without having to expose it directly to the internet, which let me deal with deployment in a much more controlled manner. Why do you want to run your own mail server? It's hard to avoid potential pitfalls without knowing what you need to accomplish.
  - vonklaus 11y ago
    I am really broke and have a lot of debt. I need a myemail@mydomain.com and all of them cost money. I have ~$250 Digital Ocean credit so I have free VPS. Also, seems like a good way to learn, although it might not be worth it as this problem has really been solved well. edit: thanks for the information though. I saw some of these services when i was doing cursory research. This was pretty helpful.
    - alanpost 11y ago
      Use a burner domain and enjoy yourself, it's a good learning experience. It is, as you yourself indicate, a pretty good waste of time too.

ac29a 11y ago

yes, its a postfix mta with dovecot and sasl/clamav/postfixadmin set up to use a mysql backend and suite b encryption. kinda a pita to configure, esp for production, but very reliable and secure.

ac29a 11y ago

theres plenty of how-to step by step knowledge bases out there, google 'how to set up postfix with dovecot'.. i think i used the gentoo wiki and copypasta'd much of it.. it takes a bit of time to set up a decent mx server, in addition to configuration, you gotta set up a db, generate/sign crypto certs, maybe do a little web-dev to make shit easy to admin.. with regards to this you rly dont want anything on a publically facing ip.. but once again tons of how-to for config out there

vonklaus 11y ago
Do you remember which guide you used? I think, at this point, I am willing to spend the time to configure it. I have free hosting, I want to set up a few emails at my domain without paying anything other than hosting.

ac29a 11y ago

helps if you run your own dns as well