Solved Self hosted mail server

Hello all,

I am after a bit of advice here. I have been planning to host my own mail server inside a FreeBSD 10 jail for a while now. The original purpose was to learn about mail servers and secondly to have more control over privacy.

I was talking to a friend a few days ago who strongly advised me NOT to host my own mail server as the setup and security risk is really not worth the time.

I was also told that because I have a single static IP from my ISP that my IP will be automatically blacklisted as spam. Is that true?

Could someone with experience provide me some advice/guidance on pros and cons on running such a service?

My little business has three users and around six unique email addresses. We use FreeBSD 10 ZFS, with our database and web server in jails, and we use /mail/OpenSMTPD as our MTA.

Thank you in advance,

Fred
 
I started running mail for one company with about ten users maybe six months ago.
I was also told that because I have a single static IP from my ISP that my IP will be automatically blacklisted as spam. Is that true?
BS.

The only real fight will be with spam. I waste more time dealing with that than anything else. Once you're set up, there's not much to do except fight the spam but, really, it's not that big a battle but they're a small company like yours.

One advantage I have is this company only forwards email from the server to their GMail or other personal accounts so I don't have to deal with accounts on the server or mail software there. What little spam that does get through, GMail squashes it.

Running a mail server can be a little nerve wracking the first time cause sometimes you're nervous it's not working and the logs can be daunting to read. I often thought I was relaying spam for a while before I realized I wasn't. It does take a chunk of your time, at least it does mine, cause I look at the mail log every day for spam or anything else that shouldn't be there.

For a small company, it's not a big deal. Just do it and, if it's a pain, stop doing it.
 
It's not the single static IP address that is the problem. It depends more on whether that address is part of a dynamic address block. Even then, customers are usually supposed to relay through an ISPs smarthost, so it is not a problem.

Running your own mail server can be a fair amount of work. If you are willing to do that, it gives much more control of email.
 
I was talking to a friend a few days ago who strongly advised me NOT to host my own mail server as the setup and security risk is really not worth the time.
+1
Your friend means well to you.

I was also told that because I have a single static IP from my ISP that my IP will be automatically blacklisted as spam. Is that true?
I can't confirm it as you have not said who is your ISP but that is a very reasonable policy on non-business accounts even if you are paying premium price for Static IP. You also need fully resolvable reverse DNS. Whom did you buy domain name from? Are you running NSD or BIND or are you using managed DNS? If you are using managed DNS who is your DNS provider?

My little business has three users and around six unique email addresses. We use FreeBSD 10 ZFS, with our database and web server in jails, and we use /mail/OpenSMTPD as our MTA.
My lab has over 60 people and the first thing I did after moving here was to kill all mail servers and outsource e-mail accounts. Now I would suggest you do little search if you care about your e-mails and don't settle with Gmail or Hotmail. Don't forget that you get what you pay for so I would definitely use paid e-mail accounts (possibly the one you are getting from your DNS provider).
 
I can't confirm it as you have not said who is your ISP but that is a very reasonable policy on non-business accounts even if you are paying premium price for Static IP. You also need fully resolvable reverse DNS. Whom did you buy domain name from? Are you running NSD or BIND or are you using managed DNS? If you are using managed DNS who is your DNS provider?

My ISP is Virgin Media in the UK and I have a domestic contract, not business. I bought the domain name from 123reg, so I also use their manged DNS.

At the moment I use Zoho Mail from zoho.com which is very good.

Oko, could you please tell me why you outsourced all your email? Is it security, time etc..?

The reason why I want to learn is because I do websites for people from time to time, I was hoping to be able to offer an email services package but It's only a long term plan.

Thank you all for your input.
 
Oko, could you please tell me why you outsourced all your email? Is it security, time etc..?
Few highlights. Our firewall was the 4th or 5th busiest firewall at Carnegie Mellon University. Dealing with spam was becoming full time job in its own right. Spammers were wasting my bandwidth which we desperately needed for our work. I got tired of daily e-mails from chief security officer who was complaining about spam etc...

You mentioned 123reg and Zoho. I am actually thinking more along the lines of

http://www.bsws.de/en/

which is run by Henning Brauer the guy who is currently main developer of PF. There are few other rally good e-mail providers with full encryption and all security bells and whistles. Search misc@openbsd for both good DNS providers and secure e-mail.

For the record I am using EasyDNS for historical reasons just because the lab had a contract with them for a long time and it was impractical to switch.
 
Hi abishai,

According to this website my IP is blacklisted with SORBS DUHL and Spamhaus ZEN. I have a green tick next to everyone else. Is this a problem?
 
That means that the mail servers using those blacklists will not allow you to send them email directly ("direct-to-MX"), because you're on a dynamic or residential (cable/DSL) IP address. Save yourself the hassle, relay through your ISP's SMTP server using smarthosting.
 
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