Re: How to setup a simple email server?
On 1/26/2014 4:19 AM, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
On 1/25/2014 1:09 PM, Garry wrote:
I would like to setup a simple email server and run it out of my
house. I have everything needed in order to do it. In fact I had one
setup successfully about a year ago and crashed it. I can't figure
out how I did it.
There's only two email addresses I would like to setup.
I would like to use postfix and dovecot; I don't need MySQL.
My ISP seems to block port 587; all other ports are open (25, 110,
etc.)
I have issues wrapping my mind around setting up mx records.
The domain is registered on namecheap.com
My IP address is static ipv4.
I'm running (would like to keep running) Debian 6 32bit.
I've followed all the various guides that pull up in search; with
each I run into problems I can't seem to resolve.
Can someone point me to a tutorial or provide me with some resources
I can follow? I am very appreciative with any help willing to be
offered. Thank you.
Not everyone is fighter pilot or race car driver material. Likewise not
everyone is mailop material. If you've made multiple attempts to set
this up and failed each time, I'd say it's pretty clear you simply lack
the aptitude and prerequisite IP networking and DNS knowledge.
And not everyone is cut out to help people, especially with technical
issues.
People need to start somewhere, and learn sometime. I remember when I
set up my first mail server a couple of decades ago I had a lot of
problems. And there wasn't all of the help available on the internet
there is today, nor all of the books available.
But even with all that help today, it's still not easy and people
generally need help setting one up securely.
How on earth will you even begin to troubleshoot when something breaks,
when you have no understanding of how the various layers of the mail
stack actually work, how SMTP works? When your mail stops arriving the
first thing you will consider is that there a problem with Postfix or
Dovecot, that -you- did something wrong. You'll blame yourself because
you know you are the weak link. So you'll start monkeying with your
Postfix configuration and break it, even though its working correctly.
By learning?
In reality, 99% of the time mail flow problems are due to a routing
problem within your broadband provider's network, a down or flapping
link between your provider and one of its peers or somewhere else on the
net, a DNS lookup issue possibly caused by the former network issues,
etc, etc.
Now that's something I have NEVER had problems with - although I had
plenty of other problems while learning. I still run into problems now
and then.
Running an MX MTA/mailbox server is 90% networking, 10% MTA/mailbox
management, especially for a family mail server with 2 mailboxes
connected via less than reliable broadband, no SLA, etc. The first
tools that get pulled out for diagnosing an MX problem are dig,
traceroute, ping, telnet, etc. NOT 'postfix reload'. Not 'vi
/etc/postfix/main.cf' or 'vi /etc/postfix/master.cf'.
Only if you have routing problems, which as I indicated above, I have
never seen. Every problem has been in my configurations.
If you don't have sufficient experience with such network diagnostic
tools, don't know how to use them, why you're using them, or when to use
which one, you don't have any business running an MX MTA. Attempting to
do so will simply cause you problems and burn huge amounts of your time,
and will completely overshadow any benefits you might receive from
having your mailboxes in a server on the premises.
I've never had to use those tools to fix MTA problems (although I have
fixed a number of other problems with them).
Setting up Postfix and Dovecot should take no more than a couple of
hours each, most of it reading docs. Creating your MX and SPF records
takes a few minutes, though it may be many hours before they go live
depending on your SOA TTL. Programming an inbound TCP 25 PAT mapping on
your router should take only a few minutes. None of this is
particularly difficult. Figuring out what ports your provider does/not
block may be more difficult, as well as getting those blocks removed.
If you have a static IP, and especially if you pay extra for it, this
shouldn't be a problem.
If you know what you're doing, you can do it in a couple of hours. My
first one took probably a couple of weeks to set up properly. But then
sendmail never was easy to set up and configure. I was glad when Exim
came out.
But even with a static IP, blocked ports can be a problem.
I am not indicting your aptitude nor abilities. I am simply giving you
a healthy dose of reality so your eyes are wide open going forward.
A much bigger concern to me is security of the email server and
preventing it from becoming a source of SPAM. Every day I see in my
logs multiple attempts to relay through my servers and otherwise get
access to them.
In the OPs case I would like to help, but not knowing the exact problems
he's having, I could only guess. And that I don't like to do; there are
too many possible wrong answers and only one right one.
Jerry
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