I’ve been running my own mail server for decades now (a quite odd hobby, I know) and that’s not to be recommended for anyone who doesn’t have a particular interest in e-mail. SMTP is from the early 1980s with roots in the 1970s and has had layer upon layer bolted on since then. It’s a fantastic mess.
No, it’s just a service that’s running without me thinking about it.
My setup is:
debian as system
exim for smtp
courier for pop3
mariadb for accounts
But I’d like to make a point that’s not being made in any of the other comments. It does not require an SMTP server to send e-mail. All you have to do is lookup the MX DNS record of the domain, connect to that SMTP server and write a few commands fx.:
EHLO senderdomain.tld
MAILFROM:<yourmail@yourdomain.tld>
RCPTTO:<recipient@recipientdomain.tld>
DATASubject: BlablaBla bla
.
I’ll counter the other comments. It’s not any more difficult to maintain than any other service. What is a pain is the spam, and as I run it for a business the users.
The biggest problem I have is other mail servers been incorrectly configured for SPF, DKIM and dmarc , usually it’s things like external billing platforms that have been integrated incorrectly by customers and suppliers. Spam is now starting to come though with all the proper headers for SPF and DKIM
@Asudox once I set it up *correctly* I didn’t have problems yet
But big email providers like google like to not deliver emails if you do stuff wrong. I’m not self-hosting for my personal email stuff, but I didn’t want to pay or put my email pw on my server, so I had no choice (i could’ve created a new email account, but i didn’t want to put a 3rd party in the middle)
@Asudox my mastodon connects with smtp to a locally running sendmail which then forwards the messages signed with dkim
Is running a SMTP server a pain in the ass? Like hard to maintain?
Yes, it is.
I’ve been running my own mail server for decades now (a quite odd hobby, I know) and that’s not to be recommended for anyone who doesn’t have a particular interest in e-mail. SMTP is from the early 1980s with roots in the 1970s and has had layer upon layer bolted on since then. It’s a fantastic mess.
No, it’s just a service that’s running without me thinking about it.
My setup is:
But I’d like to make a point that’s not being made in any of the other comments. It does not require an SMTP server to send e-mail. All you have to do is lookup the MX DNS record of the domain, connect to that SMTP server and write a few commands fx.:
EHLO senderdomain.tld MAIL FROM:<yourmail@yourdomain.tld> RCPT TO:<recipient@recipientdomain.tld> DATA Subject: Blabla Bla bla .I’ll counter the other comments. It’s not any more difficult to maintain than any other service. What is a pain is the spam, and as I run it for a business the users. The biggest problem I have is other mail servers been incorrectly configured for SPF, DKIM and dmarc , usually it’s things like external billing platforms that have been integrated incorrectly by customers and suppliers. Spam is now starting to come though with all the proper headers for SPF and DKIM
@Asudox once I set it up *correctly* I didn’t have problems yet
But big email providers like google like to not deliver emails if you do stuff wrong. I’m not self-hosting for my personal email stuff, but I didn’t want to pay or put my email pw on my server, so I had no choice (i could’ve created a new email account, but i didn’t want to put a 3rd party in the middle)