mail server suggestions

[cheesyking]

I've been toying with the idea of setting up my own mail server at home but having never done that before I'm a little in the dark.

Here is what I'd like to know:

Which server should I go for? Linux has loads of packages available and I'm a little lost. I'm looking for simple, secure IMAP, SMTP and POP3 running under ubuntu (or maybe debain). I won't be needing management of hundreds of domains and or users. Any personal recommendations or comparison sites would be appreciated.

How big a security risk is mail server. They are obvious targets I suppose and I plan to run mine in a dedicated virtual machine in a full DMZ. Just how much grief am I likely to be letting myself in for?

What do need to do to my DNS settings? The MX bits are all to do with mail stuff right? Any suggestions for somewhere to find out about this stuff, some theory for beginners would be nice.

Thanks in advance!

In case anyone is wondering why I'd like my own mail server... the prospect of having unlimited IMAP mail boxes is what's got me going on this.

[bitvector]

Which server should I go for? Linux has loads of packages available and I'm a little lost. I'm looking for simple, secure IMAP, SMTP and POP3 running under ubuntu (or maybe debain).

Typically the Unix "tradition" is that SMTP servers are separate from POP3/IMAP servers. SMTP is for delivery, while POP/IMAP is for remote access of delivered mail.

I'd suggest Postfix for SMTP and Dovecot for POP/IMAP. Exim is also a good simpler SMTP server. I've also heard that Cyrus IMAP and Courier IMAP are good for POP/IMAP.

[cheesyking]

Do you think it would be worth putting the pop/imap and smtp servers into different VMs?

[bitvector]

Do you think it would be worth putting the pop/imap and smtp servers into different VMs?

The POP/IMAP servers have to have access to the mail delivered to local spools by your MTA somehow, so I'm not sure what the point would be.

[king_kilr]

Make sure your ISP doesn't block any of the relevant ports, I know that a few near me do.

[notfred]

I think you are going over the top with VMs, this is *NIX not Windows so unless you setup something that reads the email and executes it then you shouldn't run in to any difficulties as long as you keep your software versions up to date.

I run exim on my server to receive the mail for some virtual domains, but that's more to do with it being the default in Debian rather than anything for it (apart from it not being sendmail). The configuration options are incredibly scary in their complexity and not well documented, but it is a very powerful setup.

I have a dynamic IP address that DynDNS resolves the domain name for. I set up MX records for each domain pointing to the server name in that domain and the server name then points to the IP address. That should ensure that the email hits your machine.

For outgoing mail, use the "smarthost" option where your SMTP server sends it to your ISPs SMTP server, that gets through outgoing port blocking and other stuff. Setup an SPF record in your DNS for your ISPs SMTP servers otherwise your mail may get tagged as SPAM by some places. Gmail shows SPF record checking if you send email from your setup to your gmail address to double check it.

You will get hit by spammers, I thoroughly recommend SpamAssassin and if running exim you can tie it in through sa-exim to reject at the SMTP stage, so the spam never actually gets fully received by your host. Make sure it is doing DNS RBL lookups though, in Debian it defaulted to not doing them and I had to install an extra package - I think it was a perl DNS package - before it would do the lookups.

Once the SMTP server has received the mail it can deliver it wherever, including in to an IMAP server, although I believe this is usually done by delivering in to mail box files and then running an IMAP server pointing at them, but I might be wrong.

Tips for troubleshooting:
1) Check your logfiles
2) Learn to speak SMTP i.e. telnet name@domain 25 and then type the SMTP commands (see RFC 821 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0821.txt) This way you can see what your server is doing when a mailhost tries to talk to it.

[cheesyking]

The POP/IMAP servers have to have access to the mail delivered to local spools by your MTA somehow, so I'm not sure what the point would be.

Doh!

The server will be running VMs anyway and with price of memory and processing these days and that fact that I love VMs I think I might as well have a separate mail VM.

I should be fine in terms of port blocks and I've already got a static IP.

Sounds like sendmail is a no no while exim and postfix are worth a look.

For pop/imap: courier, dovecot or cyrus.

Thanks a lot guys, time to do some reading and actually finish building the hardware.

[cheesyking]

Well, I'm chuffed at the moment.

Mail servers are a lot easier to set up than I thought!

I've got exim4 courier fetchmail procmail and spamassassin installed and talking to each other. (for the most part anyway)

The bug I've got at the moment is that I can't relay mail through exim from anywhere but my local network. I thought all I had to do was enable TLS and it would allow me to relay form networks I hadn't specified. Any suggestions?