Hosting a mail server

[ApprenticePhreak]

I'd like to host a mail server again. But I would only have me as a user. But I don't want the machine to go to waste. Plus I liked using CentOS. Is it worth it to make a machine to do the work Thunderbird and Gmail do for me already?

[RTF]

It could be more worth it if the machine you'll be running is overpowered enough to do something else in addition to serving your mail, or if it runs hot enough to dry your socks or reheat your dinner.

[trevelyn]

linux + mail = fail.  Let someone else do it for ye, like google. The spam is outrageous, configuration is enough to pull your hair out, and you are only adding insecurity to your boxen.  Do you have a cool domain name, er something?  If not, just use Google!

[rbcp]

Set up a cool asterisk system for us instead.

[handl3r]

linux + mail = fail.  Let someone else do it for ye, like google. The spam is outrageous, configuration is enough to pull your hair out, and you are only adding insecurity to your boxen.  Do you have a cool domain name, er something?  If not, just use Google!

You can still get Google to do your email on your custom domain for free with Google Apps. As long as you have less than 50 users, you are good to go. http://www.google.com/apps/

[Godot]

Do you have a cool domain name, er something?  If not, just use Google!

Even if you do have a cool domain name you want to use, you can just use Google Apps. (dammit handl3r, beat me to it)

If all you want is good reliable email for yourself, running a mail server is probably not worth it. But setting up a mail server can be a fun and educational project. I recently set up a mail server just for the hell of it, though I don't plan on using it as my primary email simply because I already get great email service for free.

[trevelyn]

Google App's dashbpard is almost as user unfriendly as GoDaddy's.  Wow, what a poorly coded UI.

[ApprenticePhreak]

I was thinking of stealing tittybarjones from whatshisface in a megalomaniac adventure sort of way. You know. Get buddy buddy, invite him over for a few drinks and some prank phone call sessions, and then finally stab his family members until he released the registar information to me allowing me for take the email of Mikhail@tittybarjones.gov.org.net.

Other than that? When I was using CentOS a few years back to setup a mail box I'd just had fun taking the project on and eventually getting it to run. A few months pass, me and the guy aren't very friendly any more due to him breaking some of my SNES games and telling me to fuck myself when I told him he had to replace them, the server goes down and hasn't really had a use for itself in some time.

But I enjoy the spinny and spiffy colored fans I have on it and the golly-gee-gosh case it came in with the clear side panel and then the system information reader on the front. Telling me such information as hardware temperatures, processor temperatures, and fan control! If nothing else it's just a fun case and a machine I feel that's going to waste after I built it about two years ago.

But maybe setting up an asterisk box could be fun, too. Another project. Haven't had a reason to setup a telephony machine with an actual use to it.

System specs:

M61PME2 S2 motherboard with onboard 10/100 ethernet
4gb RAM @ PC5300
Athlon 7750 2.7ghz
Standard 360gb Western Digital Sata drive running 7200RPM

Thinking of getting a gigabit network card for it. Saw a few inexpensive ones on Newegg and I'm moving into a house that has a gigabit connection. So, I 'unno.

[Nod]

Dude. We just got it back up and running after it got hacked. Don't get it taken away from me again I enjoy having nobody post there. It's like my own little experiment in failing epicly at running a forum.

Also, please do set up a PBX or something. That TinyChat thing is redonkulous at best. IT'S THE MOTHER FUCKING PHONELOSERS DAMNIT!

[Saul_Goodman]

The worst part about using a third-party service like Google for email hosting is that cops can get everything on your server with only a subpoena (no warrant is required). And neither the cops nor Google ever have to tell you that your data has been seized. In fact, in the case of national security letters (NSLs), it is actually a felony for Google to let you know that investigators issued the request.

When you host your own data, you will at least know if investigators use a subpoena to grab all your data. Plus, you control your data retention policies and you can delete old files you no longer need. When you use a third-party service like Google, you lose all control over your info and backups forever. It can be seized without your knowledge--and without a warrant--as long as Google has it backed up somewhere.

I'm attaching a .pdf of a CRS report about administrative subpoenas and national security letters, if you're interested.

See Charles Doyle, Congressional Research Serv., Administrative Subpoenas and National Security Letters in Criminal and Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Background and Proposed Adjustments (April 15, 2005), available at https://intelligencelaw.com/files/pdf/law_library/crs/RL32880_4-15-2005.pdf.

See also Charles Doyle, Congressional Research Serv., National Security Letters in Foreign Intelligence Investigations: Legal Background and Recent Amendments (2009), available at https://intelligencelaw.com/files/pdf/law_library/crs/RL33320_9-8-2009.pdf (“Five federal statutes authorize intelligence officials to request certain business record information in connection with national security investigations. The authority to issue these national security letters (NSLs) is comparable to the authority to issue administrative subpoenas. The USA PATRIOT Act expanded the authority under four of the NSL statutes and created the fifth. Thereafter, the authority has been reported to have been widely used.”).

[Saul_Goodman]

I've read that Postfix and Sendmail are good open source mail transport agents for linux, but I've never used either one.

Does anybody have any advice for an open source linux based mail transport agent that is easy to setup and run on your own server?