Have you ever hosted your own email?

Hello,

I'm trying to host my own email on a VPS. It is running Ubuntu 12.04 64bit. I have seen a few tutorials and how tos to setup and configure a Postfix email server but so far I haven't got mine up and running.

I'm doing this because I want to learn because I know I could easily be hosting my mail with any provider.

So, have you ever done something like this? Do you have any tip to share?

Thank you.

 

Yes, but I did it on a VPS that had plesk installed, since that already provides all the inteface you need to set up the e-mail.

Once its up and running, you dont actually need plesk to be running, so I shut that down.

 

In my case I don't have plesk available. That's why I'm trying to install everything from scratch. Hope I can get it working soon.

 

These days I don't bother, use Google App free edition where i already have or for new sites Outlook Live Domains. Wrote a guide for my Centmin Mod users which you might like http://centminmod.com/outlook_live_domains.html

 

I actually have my site email forward to my main gmail account. Less work because then I'd have to manage two accounts compared to just one.

 

I setup my own email in my cpanel account, and then I linked it with my gmail account so I can receive my emails in my gmail.

 

Those sort of things are fine if you are just talking about your own email account.

I was referring to a whole system, with multiple accounts for different people, which from the OPs post I took be what he was asking about.

 

It's much easier to just install a program that has email servers integrated into it than to set it all up yourself.

 

Namecheap has email forwarding built in (if you use their DNS which I do). You can set up a bunch of specific ones or just do a *@yourdomain.com and forward it to whatever gmail, outlook, or whatever email you use primarily.

You can even set it up so [email protected] goes forwards to one address and [email protected] forwards to another. Nice if you have a team and need to forward different mail to different in-boxes.

I like using namecheap's default DNS because it's a free external DNS from my host. I point it at whatever IP I want with A records. So having that free email forwarding built in at my registrar means my server can be down but I still get my email.

 

I used to until spam became a headache. These days I just let Google or Microsoft deal with the spam, storage, and bandwidth. It also helps that whenever my server goes down, my emails are still up.

 

Sadly not but i have heard a lot of bad things about hosting your own client - hacking, spam, bots etc just stuff hard to really deal with.

 

Have you considered google apps for business? They're about $5/month per user, I think. Fantastic.

 

I've only done this through cPanel on my VPS, I wouldn't know where to start setting a system like that up manually.

Are you after a system just for your own personal emails or for public users as well?

 

I want to host just my own mail. Maybe I'll add a couple more accounts for friends and family but basically what I want is to host my own email.

So far I haven't been successful on this quest but I'm still trying to figure this out.

 

Yes, I host email for all my websites. However I just have a WHM/cPanel reseller account so it is already configured for me. It is great because I can send and receive emails from a professional email domain which is pretty sweet.

 

I setup one forum for all staff members to have officially @yourdomain within Google Apps. Worked great, and had the gmail interface. However, I think the free part of that is no longer there. So I might look to Microsoft if they have something similar and free.

 

Install the POP/IMAP server, install the STMP server, create the accounts and passwords for each one, install a web server and a webmail client if wanted...

Simple really

 

When i do not have access to Plesk or cPanel is use ISPConfig 3 you'll then have access to mail and hosting websites.

Ubuntu 12.04 Apache 2 http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-ubuntu-12.04-lts-apache2-bind-dovecot-ispconfig-3
Ubuntu 12.04 Ngix http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect-server-ubuntu-12.04-lts-nginx-bind-dovecot-ispconfig-3

The above link is for setting up VPS with Apache 2, PHP, MySQL and Devecot (email) and SquirrelMail
The last one is the same as above except now with Ngix instead of Apache 2.

The only thing i never install from the how to is the quota because i am the only one on the VPS so that's overkill for me.

 

I will recommend Postfix & http://squirrelmail.org/ This will give you options for Webmail , Calendar & Addressbook etc. You also need a public IP , you should make sure that your ISP is not blocking SMTP. Also you should update your DNS records MX and also mak sure you SPF (Sender Policy Framework). It's a good learning experience. You can also try Openxchange mail server/groupware comes with ton of features. If you are sending bulk emails you need multiple servers or try services like Mailgun
Best