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 have an Exchange vm setup the last 3-4 years now. I use smtp2go for outgoing email. Works really well. I primarily use the system for alerts emails and mailing lists I use. If it breaks its an annoyance but nothing critical. I have a mail filter in front that all incoming mail goes through.
I’ve hosted my own email for 2 years now. Using proxmox mail gateway on a 5€ hetzner VPS. it relays mail to my mail server which I host at home. I’ve dealt with my home public IP changing every now and then with 2 simple scripts. SPF, DKIM, DMARC is all set up.
All in all, it’s relatively low maintenance. PMG makes a good job filtering all the crap and I have yet to receive and actual spam in my inbox (I only had a couple false positives).
I documented the whole setup, can share if you want.
Everyone should at least give it a try, if only so your decision not to is well informed instead of following cargo cult advice.
Honestly, not everything needs to be a firsthand experience to know it’s not something I want to do. Hosting my own email is definitely something I’m good with living through others vicariously.
Email and DNS. I have self-hosted both and I have no regrets. What I ALSO have is zero desire to do so again in the future.
100% on this suggestion.
i use to setup qmail to host a few domains, works really well, even mail blast is like really efficient. picked up a lot of fundamental about email, dns, ssl along the way.
just make sure you put a good filtering system before the email reaches your server. like mimecast, proofpoint, etc.
nowadays, you can further secure your access to pop3,imap on email server using service like cloudflare tunnel.
I’ve been hosting my own email server for 20 years. Not at home though, fuck trying to do it on a dynamic IP. Also fuck 123-reg for mangling my DKIM and making me think I was going mad.
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?
I set one up for a while and it was a royal PITA! I have since switched to a managed email account using my own domain. So much less trouble. It’s just not worth it in my opinion.
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.
I’m using gmail with my own domain and I still get my email filtered out. You would need to warm your IP address for years to not get into spam folders in most places. Not to mention the uptime issue. I would not recommend. You may try fastmail or some similar service instead.
Worst idea ever. Just pay somebody $10 a month to host your domain and let them suffer lmao
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.
Absolutely not. It’s notoriously hard.
Use AWS SES.
I would recommend to setup your own email server, or should we just all give up, like we gave up to Cloud providers?