Is it useful to have your own mail server as a non-business? Just a private person. Configure SMTP and IMAP for it, sync with outlook I think.

Yay or nay, waste of time? What are your thoughts?

  • Bubbagump210@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    I remember that job and also building the server myself from scratch. Qmail, Squirrelmail, Dovecot and all that. It lasted about a year until we bought something as it was hell. Now days with IP reputation and spam filters - even if the server ran, you’d never get anything delivered outbound.

    OP, the most I would do is an SMTP server that relays through Gmail for delivering alerts from monitoring systems. Anything else is pain.

    • nbfs-chili@alien.topB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      I finally built my own mail server because if something broke my alerts would sometimes hit the maximum limit for a non-business gmail account and not get delivered.

      I learned a lot, but it is a pain in this day and age. I had to set up SPF and DMARC records to get it to deliver to gmail. I guess the next adventure is DKIM.

      • gihutgishuiruv@alien.topB
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        Assuming you’re using postfix as an MTA, it’s not too hard to get OpenDKIM up and running.

        My mail admin experience is pretty dated these days, but I followed this guide back in the day and had it working.

        • nbfs-chili@alien.topB
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Unfortunately I’m using Citadel, which doesn’t have a lot of awesome documentation.

          Guess I get to learn some more.

    • dudeman2009@alien.topB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      That’s all we do for clients that need on-prem equipment to scan that don’t support integration with Gmail/outlook online. Spin up an SMTP relay for things like scanners, alerts, Databases, etc. and just run that straight into Google/Microsoft Mail servers.

      Our latest migration was with MailEnable and going to Exchange online, which was a collosal mess.