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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 14 2019, @01:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the ask-SoylentNews dept.

I would like to ask my fellow soylentists... What do you do for an email solution?

For almost 20 years, I have had my own personal domains along with corresponding websites, email, and any other needed service. As I am older now, I no longer need any of the visibility of my own website; I do not need it for getting new jobs, or to host any application or service. However, I still need email. My current ISP has annoyed me with rising fees and a lack of any service (not surprisingly, it went downhill really fast once their business was merged with another.)

So, I am looking to drop everything except the actual domains and the email, (not to mention change providers.) What solutions does everyone else use? Are you happy with your provider?

The biggest feature I am looking for is some type of "catchall" email address. While I realize this means a lot more spam, I am already filtering the 99% of that out. For years, I have created many single use email addresses for various websites. (e.g. keyword@mydomain.xxx ) IMO, this creates better security, because anyone trying to access my accounts need to know the email address I used as well as the password, and I also find out which websites sell my email address to others or get breached. It seems that the majority of sites do not have this simple feature anymore.

Due to my multiple handles, most of the simple email sites will not work for me. Not to mention sites that charge per email handle are not very good either. While I can consolidate with a catch-all address, this is not a preferred method.

I prefer POP3 so that I can have multiple devices access my email and webmail is a plus but not required.

So does anyone know of a email site that will fit my needs? Or is my best chance to create my own email server on a linode VPS? (Though I would prefer a simple premade solution instead of maintaining my own server at this point.)


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  • (Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Wednesday August 14 2019, @05:43PM (2 children)

    by pvanhoof (4638) on Wednesday August 14 2019, @05:43PM (#880385) Homepage

    Running a mail server is not like it was 20 years ago. What EHLO are you sending? How's your SFP record? DKIM? Do you have a reverse DNS pointer record configured? The list goes on and on.

    Hmm. Actually. That's about it. You maybe also want to make sure not to be on too many block-lists. But if you are not configured to be an open relay, you wont be. And more actually: that reverse DNS will do most of what you need. And actually actually, this is only if you also want to be the SMTP server that sends the E-mails out. For receiving the other SMTP servers will not care much that they are delivering to an MX that has no reverse DNS pointer record, SFP record or DKIM.

    Additionally, setting up an SFP record is too easy to be true. More easy than getting reverse DNS pointer record right. Since usually the ISP that gave you the IP adres must do that for you.

    Finally, just go here [mxtoolbox.com], let the diagnostic run, and do what they say.

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  • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Wednesday August 14 2019, @09:20PM (1 child)

    by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 14 2019, @09:20PM (#880538)

    I've done all of that, and I still find I get grief sometimes, where my email just doesn't make it. One time I was trying to figure out why a recipient wasn't getting my email, and it turns out that I wasn't sending some header exactly the way they like it, but what they wanted wasn't even RFC compliant. Email can be hair-ripping.

    And then there's having to deal with the usual production server issues, like making sure updates are run regularly, taking backups, etc.

    Point being, maintaining an email server is non-trivial, especially for someone who isn't already a full-time sysadmin. And it's a long-term commitment, which again is difficult for people who arn't full-time sysadmins already.

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday August 17 2019, @11:52PM

      by edIII (791) on Saturday August 17 2019, @11:52PM (#881606)

      It's just not that difficult. I have to do sysadmin crap all day long, and I rarely, if ever, have to do much with my mail servers.

      I check in once in awhile to apply updates. Every year or so, I fully update the Linux distribution and a usually a major revision of Zimbra ZCS. This is not back breaking work. I have a buildsheet and the whole thing takes me a few hours at most.

      Reverse DNS is something that actually got a lot easier. At first I needed to make a phone call to somebody at a datacenter and request it. That was time consuming. These days it's a setting on my virtual server, and done in literally 1 second. In fact, all of my DNS records, SPF, DKIM, were sorted out in less than 15 minutes. They are not difficult, and there are plenty of easy to use tools.

      You describe a hell of NDRs that I just haven't had to experience. I overstated how difficult the blacklisting was, and I've never seen my mail server get rejected because of a major blacklisting. I just get rid of them to be completely clean, but you really only have to care about the majors. I've dealt with three major delivery issues in 20 years. Craigslist, because they're morons and were blocking a hell of lot more than just me, and two specific corporations. In both cases I had to work a little. Still, THREE times in 20 years. Hardly something to throw the baby out with the bathwater over.

      The updating is automatic, the backups automated and nightly, firewalls tied into RBLs, and I get plenty of notifications if something needs to be done.

      Email is the least demanding of the systems I administrate, and the most rewarding, because I'm not subject to Google, Microsoft, or some ISP.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.