Re: [Hampshire] TRYING to set up my own simple mail server? …

> I set up a mail server at a time when ISPs weren't terribly good at
> filtering spam and when I wanted to have a lot of control over what
> arrived in the family's email inboxes.

I was in a similar boat; most of the network-type stuff I did was because
my ISP were completely incompetent. What I learnt was that it is generally
much easier than it looks...

> The first setup was Exim on Debian Sarge and ran trouble free for 18
> months or so.

My first setup was sendmail on RH8.0. It's been upgraded a time or two -
now running on WBEL3 on completely different hardware - but the
installation is still essentially the same as I did in the first place.

> I thought it was anything but simple, although more
> experienced folks out there might disagree with me.

I came to the same conclusion when playing with exim; I don't remember
what I thought about postfix.

But I keep coming back to sendmail because I find it very easy.

> Anyway, the point is, what is the driver for hosting your own mail
> server?

My driver is simple: traceability. I know where all my mail goes, and I
have a logfile to prove it. I also get to use toys like TLS - so I can
send mail between the machines I control without having to worry about
interception.

> Referencing the quote from Vic above, if you can't set it up
> you'll probably struggle to maintain and troubleshoot it further down
> the line, and if there is any business dependency on the system, that is
> probably somewhere you don't want to go.

That's true - but the solution to that IMHO is to persevere and learn a
bit about mail servers - they're not difficult until you start scaling up
massively. That way, if something happens, you can get it running in
minutes, rather than having to fight your way through someone else's
helldesk.

> Indeed, one of the reasons I stopped hosting my own mail server was the
> feeling that, following a disk failure or some other catastrophe, I
> would need to fix the problem quickly, which is fine if you're at work
> and being paid to do it, but is another thing altogether at 10 o'clock
> on a Monday night after a hard day.

I run backups of the mail spools. Anything else can be resurrected from
the install CDs.

> If you do decide to forge ahead, give some thought to getting a good
> provider who can supply a static IP address

You don't even need a good provider - but a static IP address does make
life easier.

> and also to the
> responsibilities that go with hosting a mail server and keeping out the
> spammers.

That's for certain.

> Have a think about a dedicated machine that doesn't get used
> for much else

I don't know about that; I suppose it depends on how likely you think you
are to take the box down...

> and think about setting yourself up with a virtual
> machine to test updates and changes before they are pushed on to the
> live mail server.

I don't. But then if I lose email access for 30 minutes, it really isn't
the end of my world...

Vic.