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?
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No.
I would say absolutely not.
I selfhost everything I want except for email, just not worth it imo.
As a fun project, yes.
As an actual day2day email, no.
Unless u have actual redundancy with 24/7 uptime and static IP, it may caused missed emails. Even if u do, the price is a factor u may need to consider.
Missed emails? Don’t clients retry?
have been running my own mail server(s) since early 2000. If Hillary can, you can :)
but of course there are downsides as well, you need to expose services from the outside, you need to allow SNMP inbound, you need to deal with DNS and various mail security enhancements, deal with anti-spam and do mailware/virus scanning etc. on top of that you would need to consider some kind of “high” availability. if your server goes down = no emails…
for me its worth it, my exchange server have been running for the last 10 years or so, I publish both webmail and use the outlook and/or mail in my phone.
I have multiple domain (10+) and run my own DNS.
The only thing I can’t do is send emails… I have to rely on my ISP for outgoing emails, but that’s a good thing as generally my emails are not marked as spam as they comes from a trusted source.
Nope. Spam mail
I have the Proxmox mail filter in front of my Exchange. It works wonderfully well. No spam gets through.
If you want to do it for fun and learning, ok I guess.
But nobody really does it anymore.
For actual mail that I would use, just go with a mainstream provider.
If you want to actually learn real-world skills, get yourself your own 365 tenant with a single license. Well worth the spend (or free if you can get a partner license).
Don’t mean to be dense, but how does one do this? I tried googling this, but kept getting hits on single versus multi-tenant licensing.
setting up email is easy, configuring it so you don’t get caught in spam filters, and you don’t get a ton is a full time job. I did it for awhile and just didn’t find it worthwhile any longer.
The biggest problem you’ll run into is sending email from your residential internet connection. Most, if not all, residential ISPs either 100% block or severely throttle port 25 outbound traffic to cut down on spam. Even if you’re able to find an ISP that doesn’t block 25 outbound, if the reverse zone lookup indicates that it’s a residential ISP most spam filtering solutions are going to flag all of your messages as spam.
Always fun to do if learning but in production even for personal i would recommend you pay for something like startmail or mailfence and use their custom domain features.
i learned exchange on my own and even had dreams of doing multi tenant exchange until exchange online came and jerked off all over that dream
I’ve run my own mail server for over 15 years. If you’re going to do it, put it on a VM at a reliable cloud provider, such as AWS. You wouldn’t want your email to go down while you’re on vacation for a week with no way of fixing it. You need to make sure you use a static IP that you keep forever, because your mail server builds reputation and the IP must not have any reputation of spam that has landed it on block lists.
It’s not difficult if you let reuse someone else’s hard work to make it secure and keep it updated. This project is fantastic: https://mailinabox.email/
Would I recommend it? It’s more rational to bring your own domain to have it hosted by Microsoft or Google, but doing it yourself is more fun and flexible, and possibly cheaper depending on how many users and domains you will be hosting.
If you’re planning to run for political office, I’d recommend against it. /s
waste of time IMO. Most messages will not make it through spam filters because of a bunch of reasons. Just writing your friends would be pointless.
How many of you all here, using a hosted solution remembered to setup DKIM on their custom domain? hostname alignment can aid in email deliverability, i believe.
For reference, if you were using office365 you would take the steps outlined here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/email-authentication-dkim-configure?view=o365-worldwide
Lastly… if you don’t bother, any good reason to skip the domain alignment step?
Go for it for fun, but understand that FEW EMAILS WILL GET DELIVERED.
It’s nearly impossible to develop a good IP reputation, and Microsoft and other mega-email-providers will deliver all your mail to junk.