Discussion
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- Yes, you can run your own mail server on a cheap VPS (Virtual Private Server)
- Yes, it's cheap. €5/month for a VPS and €10/year for your own domain, if you take a .eu
- Yes, you should configure SPF, DKIM, DMARC
- Yes, with that in place Google, Microsoft and other big providers will accept your emails
- Yes, you can manage incoming spam in effective and automated ways
- Yes, all Open Source.
- No, it doesn't need a lot of admin work, 5 min/day
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@jwildeboer
While I certainly can host my own email server and have done it in the past I can just not be bothered by it .
Especially to not get added to spamboxes for no reason on my company email (😡MS & Google).
So I pay mailbox.org (German) to take care of that
@jwildeboer in Openbsd ? Is the same?
@wachin There will be some differences, but the stack I use (postfix+dovecot) should work in similar ways on *BSD too.
@jwildeboer Seconded. My mail servers have evolved from UUCP to modern SMTP/IMAP running on Solaris pizza boxes, white box PCs, Mac Cubes, Minis and currently on a hosted Linux VM.
Amongst the list of computer things that are really hard, this is not one of them. Fiddly to setup? Yes. But once in place it just pretty much runs
@jwildeboer 5 eu/month is a lot of money for folks outside of Eu/USD/similar currencies. Are the cheaper (black Friday sales are near) options gonna work for mail servers, or is ipv4 reputation gonna be a problem for such providers?
@ni_nad I'd say any VPS with IPv4 and IPv6 should do for the basic setup I use. My mailserver runs on a VPS with 1 CPU, 1 GB of RAM and 40GB of storage.
@jwildeboer and if you go to a big hoster to get your VPS, they have a one-click activation of email with all bells and whistles. Including webmail. And that stuff is usually based off open source tools, one can install locally and then click the button "make domain with mail stuff".
@assimilateborg Yep. That's also an option. And better than a gmail or outlook account, in my opinion. But especially here on the Fediverse I have found quite a bunch of nerds like me that prefer to do it all themselves. Do whatever fits your knowledge and experience! No judgment from my side :) People on the Fediverse already made the first step wrt social networks, so why not also do it for email? Decentralise and federate everything!
@jwildeboer I already have some stuff on Hetzner so I went with their mail option as well and so far, in ~1 year since I have it I haven't gotten any issues, so that's an option to consider if you don't want to self-host or run your own mail and bother with configuration and whatnot. Buy it, set the custom domain, and add 1 or more addresses. Done!
@jwildeboer I have SPF, DKIM and DMARC and all the other things and my mails still get auto delivered to the spam folder on outlook.com probably because of my domain. Self hosting can be a pain so fast. We had our mail server on spam lists because computers were hacked at my uni. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone especially if you depend on it. I wouldn't recommend O365 either but for companies mail is often as critical or more than telephones. I'd rather go with a trusted provider.
@jwildeboer would you (or anyone else kindly disposed) be able to recommend a guide to setting up dkim and dmarc, that would be suitable for my level of technical comprehension (poor)?
@jwildeboer second that. Own mailserver running since 22 years.
I'd just like to add:
The entirety of my domain at thelancashireman.org runs on a VPS hosted in Germany that costs 4.29 EUR per month.
I have no problems sending email to the big providers.
I use the free service at https://www.learndmarc.com/ to verify that my SPF/DKIM/DMARC setup is configured and working correctly. As well as checking the headers, it explains clearly what's going on.
@jwildeboer If a VPS is not needed, also cheap Webhosting is available including a .de domain without any admin work if not wanted.
https://www.serverprofis.de/webhosting/webhosting-private/
@jwildeboer how do you (and other self-hosters) deal with the spam? For me, that's always been the PITA.
I have a grandfathered Google workspace account that's been getting more and more expensive - and it's literally only there for email (I originally set it up to have my own domain, backed by Gmail)
@draeath What works surprisingly well is to simple check if a connecting sender has their reverse lookup in DNS set up correctly. Most spambots don't :)
@jwildeboer I agree with: owning a domain and a basic understanding of smtp, imap, DKIM, SPF etc
the most important is: you __can__ host yourselve.
I am happy with @mailbox_org , but I know I can move to another hoster or to selfhost without downtime or changing my email adress.
@jwildeboer fully agreed! It’s one of the most gatekept things in self hosting.
(and get your popcorn for the expected barrage of replies with counter arguments, trying to tell you that you shouldn't even think about owning your infrastructure ;)
My mailserver is running since 15+ years. So yes, I have a lot of experience and knowledge and I know what I am talking about. I am happy to share all my knowledge on this. On my blog at https://jan.wildeboer.net/2022/08/Email-0-The-Journey-2022/ and here, as long as you ask nicely :)
And do note: I say you CAN run your own mailserver. I don't say you MUST!
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Jan Wildeboer
@jwildeboer Eine Frage habe ich auch. Betreibe selbst seit rund 20 Jahren meinen eMail Server. Bekomme gerade oft Spam aus dem OVH Netz. Du schriebst dass du Spam Cop dies Spam meldest. Wie hast du das automatisiert gemacht? Der Header muss ja immer dabei sein.
@jwildeboer Yes. Mails remain central and worth the effort hosting. Stalwart deserves a look: a modern, well thought and integrated solution