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So You Want To Host Your Own Linux Mail Server ...
Jeff writes "Recently, I moved my personal mail from a hosted Windows 2003 application to my own virtual Linux server. I now have nearly unlimited storage, full control over my e-mail and it's less than $10/month. Here's why I did it and here's how I did it. And I'm not a Linux geek."
It's just an ad for some virtual host that looks like a howto.
Bleh.
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
I bet even my grandmother could follow those instructions!
My Journal
How many non-geeks know how to install Debian and configure mail services?
For normal users the best solution is to either get a hosting account somewhere that supports webmail, or open a gmail account. They configure everything for you so all you have to do is login and read your mail.
Amazing. The guy actually learned to set up Debian, and Courier, and SquirrelMail!
Holy shit!
This is sort of a blind-leading-the-blind situation, with little reference made to the official docs for any of these packages. And I'm sorry, I don't have time to read some fellow's long, hard journey to understanding Debian apt-get. Or better yet, screwing up the relationship between sudo and visudo and negelecting the latter entirely.
I also love how 2 gigs is seen as "unlimited" space. Sure, it's a lot more than you'll get from a free webmail account, even gmail, but that's the reason to roll your own server, not buy time on a virtual server and stumble around learning what you shouldn't do with linux.
Bleh. Don't waste you time.
Okay where??
you have to provide at least two layers of spam filtering + antivirus filtering. otherwise you're asking for it. Setting up a linux box to host email is asked to be used as a relay.
. . . but when the man wants your mail, all he has to do is get the directories from your vhost. If you host your own, he has to serve a no-knock warrant, and can seize your encrypted drive.
What's with running sudo before every command? Just "sudo su -" and be done with it already.
If you do this, just remember to keep your ISP address around (and check it). Why?
.. but since when did average users start reading their past the "Mail Returned" header?
I have a cousin who seemingly does this who forgot to renew his domain. So when e-mails start bouncing because my mother can't send mail to her relatives, who gets called in? Me. Although the errors clearly mention it's a problem on their end
To summarize: do it right (ie, have a backup plan), or not at all.
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
Why would I want to spend $10/month and have to run it myself, when for less than $20/year I can have someone else do all the work for me? Since the article seems to be a case of free advertising, I'll point out that Slashmail will host your email for $13.95 a year. They allow unlimited email storage space, spam and virus filters, and secure access via various means (HTTPS webmail, IMAPS). Oh, and they use all Open Source.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Registering a domain (or anything else, really) to an ISP email account is a bad idea.
So your forgetful cousin switches from SBC DSL to Roadrunner. He'll still miss his renewal reminders.
Case in point: There's a salesman where I work who used to use his personal DSL account to conduct business. That DSL pipe never really worked very well, but for the longest time it was all he could get. Sometime later, he switched to cable. But he's still paying Way Too Much for a DSL account that isn't connected to anything but an open loop, just to keep his old address alive. That old email is printed on thousands of business cards and in Godknowshowmany telephone books. It'll cost him $90, every month, until the end of time.
Better to just create for yourself an account with a free POP3 provider, so that you don't have so many services and accounts tied to an ISP whose sole purpose in life -should be- to just provide some bandwidth (and, perhaps, Usenet).
But it's even better to register yourself a free domain (afraid.org is your friend) and use that for all that Important Stuff that relates to one's Other Domain.
And it's arguably even better than that to use -both- of these techniques, while instructing your free POP3 host to forward mail to an address at your free domain.
That way, if it all comes to horrible screeching halt (not even Linux is immune to Sudden Catastrophic Failure Syndrome), you've still got a happy free webmail interface to which your Important Stuff is already going.
This also has the added advantage of being another hop for email to traverse. Normally, this might be considered a bad thing, but it eliminates the need for a secondary MX server (which can be difficult to source for free) for all imaginable home uses. And so, if your email box becomes un-fubar'd within a reasonable amount of time, you never miss a message.
(If you're having trouble finding a free email host that enables this functionaliry, just look up about 8 paragraphs.)
Lots of steps? Sure. But nobody ever said it was -easy- to have reliable email without paying anyone an extra cent.
It wasn't very hard for me to set up such a sytem, here. I've maintained a *nix box at home for printing, storage, and routing for almost a decade. It was rather easy to set up Postfix and amavis on that machine, configure dhcpcd to update my IP address at afraid.org, and get my mail forwarded over to it. Roadrunner does a pretty good job of keeping the machine connected for the $50/month that I was going to be paying anyway, and during those times when they don't, my free email provider keeps a backlog for me. It's not tainted with any of that fetchmailesque nonsense, and if I ever hop ISPs, things keep working automatically.
So, since I already had the box and the bandwidth, the whole bag cost me precisely dick but a few hours of my time. I get to keep my own backups without worrying about bandwidth or quotas. And it's at least as reliable as Hotmail. (grin, snicker, etc)
Kid-proof tablet..
Let's see.
? Choose daemon since redwood virtual has a network connection
? Select the default URL
? Select yes to notify
? Select Internet Site when asked for configuration
? Select postmaster as the root account
? Select default mydomain.org
? Select defaults for mail routing etc...
Be sure to remember to add a user account for the postmaster later. I?ll come back to this shortly.
If you know enough to alias postmaster to root, set your default domain and set up mail routing you sir are too a linux geek.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
And I *am* a Linux geek (RHCE).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
From the website of the virtual hosting company:
/. have a very powerful promotional effect... hummm....
"We are currently at full capacity. We will have more virtual servers available soon. Please check back in a few days..."
It seems that
about me A - B