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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."
Actually, it's a Virtual Linux Host, not a Virtual Hosting account. Although this might well be blatant advertising, there is an important difference between the two ideas.
Virtual Linux hosting is something new that uses UML (I think) to run several completely separate operating system partitions on the same machine. This means that rather than that horrid CPANEL thing you get with most virtual hosting accounts, you get a full Linux install that you can pretty much use however you want, installing new programs and running background processes and cron, using SSH, and so on. You can even have IP addresses assigned to your particular Linux if required.
This is much better than the standard HTTP/1.1 vhost package that most small-medium sized website hosts have been offering for the last few years.
From the second line of part two ("how I did it") of the article:
"I used the instructions below to guide me through the process of setting up a server at Redwood Virtual with the following components..."
And a little bit further down:
"I bought a personal account at Redwood Virtual. It's $10 per month..."
Setting up a linux box to host email is asked to be used as a relay.
No, it really isn't. I've been hosting email for a handful of domains for a few years now. No relaying, no intrusions, no problems. Spam filtering is done with a few RBLs and relaying is prohibited.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
I've been very happy with Linode.com. They also have Gentoo and Mandrake images to start off with.