I’m exploring some options to see if it’s viable to self host my email account. Currently I have:
A home server that I can host the entire email stack but I cannot open the SMTP port there
An AWS account where I can create a VM with SMTP ports open to the internet and reverse DNS support, also I have a domain and AWS SES configured and approved to send emails
Ideally I would want to send and receive from my home server, but that is not possible, so I’m exploring some alternatives:
For receiving emails:
Cheap VM with postfix and my home server with dovecot, essentially forwarding all emails to my home server where I want them to be. I don’t know if this setup works tho.
Keep everything in a VM, with the downside that I’ll need to do extra work there as it will have all my data. If possible I don’t want to go that route.
For sending emails:
Sending from the same VM receiving emails, and have everything managed
Use AWS SES to send emails in my behalf
Any input or opinion is appreciated. I’m currently exploring options, I haven’t made any decisions, so if you have a better alternative feel fee to share.
I’ve been running my own email server for years, and while it’s indeed difficult at first, it is possible and you don’t have much to do to maintain it when it works. All the horror stories you hear come from the fact it’s difficult to get right, and even when you get it right, you will have deliverability problems the first year, until your domain name gets established (and provided you don’t use it for spam, obviously - and yes, marketing is spam).
What you need :
being willing and serious about reading lot of documentation
an IP that is not recognized as a home IP. So you’ll need a “business ISP”, or one that is not well known. You bypass this problem by using AWS.
choosing a well recognized TLD for your domain name, like .com, .org, .net, etc. Don’t use one of those fancy new extensions (.shop, .biz, etc), they are associated with spammers.
learning how SPF works and getting it right (there are plenty of documentation and test tools for that)
same for DKIM
same for DMARC
Start using that for a year without making it your main address. Best is to use it for things not too mainstream, like FOSS mailing lists, discussing with people having their own mailserver, etc, those will not drop your mails randomly. When a year has gone with frequent usage, you can migrate to that email address or domain.
Regarding the architecture of your network : do you read your emails on several machines (like, on mobile and laptop)? If not, you can dramatically simplify your design by using pop3 instead of imap, connecting your client to the AWS server, downloading all your emails to computer and removing them from the server at the same time. There, you have all your mails locally and you don’t need dovecot. :)
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I’ve been running my own email server for years, and while it’s indeed difficult at first, it is possible and you don’t have much to do to maintain it when it works. All the horror stories you hear come from the fact it’s difficult to get right, and even when you get it right, you will have deliverability problems the first year, until your domain name gets established (and provided you don’t use it for spam, obviously - and yes, marketing is spam).
What you need :
.com,.org,.net, etc. Don’t use one of those fancy new extensions (.shop,.biz, etc), they are associated with spammers.Start using that for a year without making it your main address. Best is to use it for things not too mainstream, like FOSS mailing lists, discussing with people having their own mailserver, etc, those will not drop your mails randomly. When a year has gone with frequent usage, you can migrate to that email address or domain.
Regarding the architecture of your network : do you read your emails on several machines (like, on mobile and laptop)? If not, you can dramatically simplify your design by using pop3 instead of imap, connecting your client to the AWS server, downloading all your emails to computer and removing them from the server at the same time. There, you have all your mails locally and you don’t need dovecot. :)