email hosting
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For sure self hosting is enormously appealing. Problem is even if your on no ones blacklist your also not on the whitelist that major email providers appear to use. Result is, you end up in the spam mailbox. For those times you do need to send someone you don't have an existing relationship with an email, they just don't see it, and you have no way to nudge them to look in the spam folder for your message.
Yeah, I have a general reluctance to dumping a bunch of stuff in the cloud. I'm also reluctant to open up a bunch of ports on my network and then defend them to self-host shared calendars, contact lists, smtp, etc. The Helm was/is a great idea to get around these issues. You get a AWS instance that does nothing but forward traffic from your public AWS IP to a host in your network via a vpn. You can do all that yourself but it was worth it, $99/year, to let them set it all up. Again, the issue is that public AWS IP isn't on anyone's white list. You're spam every time...
I would love to be able to send a document to my lawyer via signal. Same for my investment advisor. That's not going to happen anytime soon. :(
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@jwj
bind9 for dns+postfix+dovecot+owncloud+collabora i can't ask for more for personal use for my domains
if you want something easy to manage there is webgui like ispconfig -
@kiokoman I do like that idea. I've had a look at, more or less, exactly the pieces you mention. Problem is my dynamic ip from Spectrum is sh*t by definition...
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@jwj said in email hosting:
Again, the issue is that public AWS IP isn't on anyone's white list. You're spam every time...
That is somewhat true ...
I have that issue with TrendMicro's mailprotection system.
Even though i have a static ip , it's "carved out of" a Dynamic range that my ISP is announcing.And I have contacted them several times to explain that i'm not on any RBL's besides theirs (All clear w. spamhous etc..)
They always answer - Get your ISP to announce your ip as non dynamic. Like that's ever going to happen
The wife has to use Gmail to send work related mails.
So i can relate to that issue.That is my only "dark hole" atm.
I even think i can e-mail gmx.de addresses now , used to be a challenge too.
/Bingo
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It's been a minute since I went down this road but a year or so ago just not being on spamhaus or proofpoint wasn't enough. So many professional offices (doctors/schools/etc) use packaged solutions that have, as best I can tell, whitelists for spam filtering. If you're not coming from a well known block of IP's you're toast.
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@jwj said in email hosting:
Problem is my dynamic ip from Spectrum is sh*t by definition...
You do know you can request your ip to be removed from the Spamhaus PBL , even if it's "announced by isp as dynamic ?
That solved like 95% of my issues
Ahh . too late , you answered that
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@bingo600 Thanks brother :)
I do think in the end I will go back to some form of self-hosting. All on my own or some service like the Helm that will deal with all of setup for a fee...
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So what is needed is a "Legal" smarthost mail forwarder , to route/relay your outbound mail through.
And setup TLS
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@bingo600 That's what these guy s do:
https://www.thehelm.com/
They just need to get a block of IP's that are seen as blessed like google or micro$oft's servers.
Better yet all these other services (bank!) could stop using email as a way to identify me. Then I wouldn't need email at all except for some edge cases.
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@jwj
So they sell you a HW box and a $99 subscription ?
And you'll get a VPN w. an exit ip via their system ? -
@bingo600 Yeah. Although I think the VPN is vaporware atm. You get email, carddav, caldav and nextcloud. I nice app (connects to your box via bluetooth) to admin the whole thing...
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@jwj
Hmmm ... Not happy users
https://community.thehelm.com/t/email-security-in-individual-email-accounts/246Are they just using Gmail ?
https://community.thehelm.com/t/gmail-outage-ongoing/279 -
@bingo600 The company has become something of a dumpster fire. People paid for devices over a year ago and have yet to receive anything.
Their community is a dumpster fire on top of a train wreck driven by idiots. Typical Helm users have brain damage from tin foil hats that are way too tight.
That thread is really about how people thought the bounced emails because of gmails meltdown were Helms problem not googles.
My opinion is the Helm is a good idea executed poorly. Too bad really...
On the other hand there is nothing they do you couldn't do yourself with the some persistence and the right skills.
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@jwj
without a static ip you are screwed
i myself have searched all available isp on my country that could give me what i want, static ip was a must, do you have no alternative? -
@kiokoman Not at the moment. Spectrum or AT&T. I'm moving later this year. I'll have a number of choices in the new place (NYC) including a community service that gives 1G symmetric service with static ipv4 and a static /48 prefix. I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for that :)
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As a follow on to this line of thinking.
If you self host things not email. Calendars, Contacts, File Sync/Sharing and the like do you open ports or keep it local and only accessible via VPN when not at home?
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I just migrated my gmail box to Proton Mail. So far so good. Good security. App works fine, web interface is better. Using a custom domain so don't expect to run into issues with sites not accepting protonmail.com or pm.me addresses. Not sure if you can get by with their free offering but PM might be an easy fix. Tutanota seems to be the other option in the same high security/privacy focused category.
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@jwj said in email hosting:
As a follow on to this line of thinking.
If you self host things not email. Calendars, Contacts, File Sync/Sharing and the like do you open ports or keep it local and only accessible via VPN when not at home?
I'm not exposing to public.
All has to be done via OpenVPNIt can't be hard to connect , the wifey can do it wo. nagging.
Btw: I have a friend that is happy w. proton mail too.
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@bingo600 Thanks! I appreciate the advice.
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@jwj said in email hosting:
Just really good email hosting.
Gandi, Google, whatever, forget about them. Go for the real thing, as it is free, used by everybody, and it delivers.
Take your own dedicated server / VPS. Install postfix, add 'courier' or 'dovecot' for POPS and IMAPS support. postfix handles already SMTPS. Add your domains, add known certificates (LE comes in handy here).
Add, for example, roundcube, for webmail access.
Forget about GUI ways to handle postfix. Get to know the two files : main.cf and master.cf and your good. postfix is the most documented program on the Internet.
Add some SPF, DKIM and DMARC facilities. Take care of your reverse and your good.Control incoming mail, control outgoing mail ( ! ), be patient and gmail, hotmail, etc etc (all of them) will accept your mails just fine.
I switched to that "all myself" mail solution for several domain names a decade ago, and I never regretted it.
True, it's not a free solution. The servers has to be rented, as the domain names.
Hosting you own setup means you can try whatever you want : spam detection is an art.
iPhones, Android devices, Office 365, Thunderbird, other mail clients, my setup works with everything.
