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open source/free email server solutions

blgdinger

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Messages
202
In a nutshell: this is 100% for personal use. I am not paying for a MS Exchange license. I want something that is capable of simply being an email server.

Any suggestions?

I found hMailServer, MailEnable, and Axigen. I'll probably try MailEnable first.

Also I wasn't entirely sure what forum to put this in.
 
Check out something like Postfix on CentOS.

Really though the issue is that most ISP's are going to block you sending email to home servers. A requirement is going to be a business grade Internet connection.
 
I'm moving this weekend and my connection will be 150 down and 20 up. That's way faster than a lot of clients I have. Would setting up DynDNS fix that?

Also I guess I might be open to just about anything, because I intended on having my server run a VM for anything else I'd want to play around with.
 
I'm moving this weekend and my connection will be 150 down and 20 up. That's way faster than a lot of clients I have. Would setting up DynDNS fix that?

Also I guess I might be open to just about anything, because I intended on having my server run a VM for anything else I'd want to play around with.
Speed is irrelevant. You must comply with ISP firewall rules. Attempting to use DynDNS is futile.
 
Your isp is probably going to block the ports smtp works on, no way around that besides purchasing business grade internet like has been mentioned.
 
I use GroupOffice at work. Runs in a small virtualised debian server.
There's obviously the web interface part, but you can also download groupofffice-mailserver which is basically a combo of dovecot,amavis and all that. Super easy to setup. I managed to get it working even though I absolutely hate e-mail servers and I'm crap at them.

I love GroupOffice.
 
Your isp is probably going to block the ports smtp works on, no way around that besides purchasing business grade internet like has been mentioned.

This makes no sense. If that was the case, then using outlook or any other email client would be impossible.

You generally use POP3 to receive and SMTP to send.
 
This makes no sense. If that was the case, then using outlook or any other email client would be impossible.

You generally use POP3 to receive and SMTP to send.

Inbound SMTP blocking prevents people from hosting email servers on their connection. You can do this while still allowing POP3/IMAP in and SMTP out.
 
Inbound SMTP blocking prevents people from hosting email servers on their connection. You can do this while still allowing POP3/IMAP in and SMTP out.


Ok, gotcha. I am going to have to try this on my connection. Been thinking about setting up a personal mail server.
 
Most of them block incoming port 25 and redirect outgoing port 25 to their own smtp servers.
You can use a pop3 connector to bring email from email hosting into your mail system and relay to your isp smtp servers for outgoing mail.
 
Honestly, if you can't figure out this on your own you shouldn't probably run a mail server in the first place. Just buy the service, Gandi.net for instance includes the service when you buy a domain.

It's just a bad idea to do this on a home connection as others have already mentioned.

//Danne
 
Isn't using port 587 the 'new' way to host/access secure SMTP servers with authentication? after 25 was blocked?
 
Even if you get it working on a personal ISP account, the chances you'll get through 90% of the worlds spam filters with an unverified mail source is slim to none.
 
Donut is correct also...

I am a cheap bastard so let me tell you how I did it at work on a shoestring budget.

I rented the cheapest possible hosting (something like 20 dollars a year), they gave me about 4 gigs of space, a domain name in their subdomain, and cpanel. I created a bunch of e-mail accounts on it. I could have used webmail from then on, but I extended this to use GroupOffice.

I have it setup as a local server that basically mirrors the contents of the hosting company's mailboxes. I informed GroupOffice via config menus about that domain name, about the mailboxes setup on there and their passwords.

The local server polls the hosting company's server every 10 minutes and downloads new messages via IMAP IIRC. Or simple pop3, can't remember.

But - it knows that in order to SEND mail, it needs to authenticate itself as the 'real' account at the hosting company (contacting port 587 and providing auth info). Basically it's a closed relay.

The benefits are - the internets are not clogged with everyone accesing webmail (because they access the local 'mirror' server), and also cooperation is possible because everyone can see what came in, what has been dealt with and how. When worker A reads a mail, it's marked as 'read' for everyone. Great feature for teamwork.

Backups are easy peasy - I just throw the VM with Groupoffice onto a backup server or external drive.

But, alas, you still need some cash for a hosting service with like 5 or 10 e-mail accounts and cpanel to set stuff up.
 
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