I am looking to setup an email server for home use. I want to replace a debian server on a RPI 4 to an archlinux arm on RPI 4. I have dovecot and postifix on the debian rpi presently. It is not working as needed. I have looked at the relative wiki pages for postfix, exim, opensmtpd and dovecot. Looks like I may need help with the setup. Need recommendations and setup help for one of the following: SMTP postfix, exim, opensmtpd The server needs to send/forward email from alarm.home.arpa to mail.twc.com for several accounts. The smarthost would need to "lookup" the account for the proper login credentials. I have no been able to set this up in exim nor postfix IMAP dovecot Need to be able set email directories to /srv/Mail/<user> for all users The /srv is a raid 1 partition so I want to store the mail there instead of in the default /var directory Thanks -- Hindi madali ang maging ako
Just a note, If this is being done on residential broadband then good luck, its very unlikely to work. A large number of ISPs block/filter port 25 (which is used to relay emails) to "protect against spam". Not to mention the horrific IP reputations which most email servers will just bounce. Unless the mail server is only being used for internal traffic it is very unlikely to work, there is a reason its uncommon to see self hosted emails, and the majority of people which do have their own email tends to use a relay or point their mx record at a major email provider. It is possible, for example my email is self hosted, but its a whole can of worms to open. It sounds like you are trying to host your own email server and get whatever mail.twc.com is to forward emails to it? However I am not too sure. Take care, -- Polarian GPG signature: 0770E5312238C760 Jabber/XMPP: polarian@icebound.dev
On 11/4/24 15:50, Polarian wrote:
Just a note,
If this is being done on residential broadband then good luck, its very unlikely to work.
A large number of ISPs block/filter port 25 (which is used to relay emails) to "protect against spam". Not to mention the horrific IP reputations which most email servers will just bounce.
Unless the mail server is only being used for internal traffic it is very unlikely to work, there is a reason its uncommon to see self hosted emails, and the majority of people which do have their own email tends to use a relay or point their mx record at a major email provider.
It is possible, for example my email is self hosted, but its a whole can of worms to open.
It sounds like you are trying to host your own email server and get whatever mail.twc.com is to forward emails to it? However I am not too sure.
Take care,
Not al all. I am fetching mail for six different accounts using fetchmail to deliver the mail to a single account on dovecot imap server (local). I then want to be able to respond/reply to mails by using smart host to www.twc.com ( will require six sign ons to www.twc.com). I had a similar setup a long time ago using arch on an old i686 computer. I want to do the same but using a rpi 4. It will not be a general mail server or hosting email to the internet. I am blocking all email from any internet machine only allowing fetchmail to retrieve mail from www.twc.com. I fact I block all outside connections from the internet. The rpi 4 sits behind a a router that nats ipv4 and only allows out going connections. I am using nftables to firewall the rpi 4, which allows only local traffic (out going is allowed, DNS searches, pacman etc. limited outbound traffic). My plan is to get opensmtpd working first and then add dovecot into the mix. I already have dovecot on a rpi 4 locally, running debian. I want to go to using archlinux exclusively. This rpi 4 running archlinux has NFS and DNS currently running. It is a "home" file server. I want to set up the email service as archival on this rpi 4. My next project is an archlinux desktop on a rpi 5. I am looking to start this project no later than first of next week. I have scratch built operating systems for rpi 2,3 and 4. RPM package manager. -- Hindi madali ang maging ako
On 11/4/24 11:09 AM, Pocket wrote:
I am looking to setup an email server for home use. I want to replace a debian server on a RPI 4 to an archlinux arm on RPI 4. I have dovecot and postifix on the debian rpi presently. It is not working as needed.
It matters not what distro you use, it's all Linux under the hood. Postfix, dovecot, procmail is a good combination. You will need to ensure your ISP doesn't block ports (if you have a fixed IP/business account, you are likely fine) Additionally you will want a firewall and tool to monitor failed authentication attempts for both postfix and dovecot. nftables with fail2ban or iptables/ipset with fail2ban are excellent solutions. You will require a domain name and both forward and reverse mappings with entries in your domain providers DNS to have your mail accepted by other servers. Many block mail without a valid reverse lookup. (gmail will still block even with DKIM codes set and gmail seems to move the goal-posts frequently to keep you on your toes) You will need valid SSL certificates for your domain (Let's Encrypt is a great service providing free certs, certbot is a great tool for renewing the certificates). You can use the same certificates for https as well as dovecot. There is a small learning curve to put it altogether, and you must make sure your mail-host isn't an open relay, or you will find your host on banlists quickly. The postfix and dovecot and procmail documentation is good, and there are 20 years worth of tutorials available. (make sure you are using current tutorials) That said, I've run mail-hosts for about 20 years and they work fine on Arch or any other distro. The benefit of Arch is you are always on the current version with up to date software instead of waiting for bug and security fixes to be backported. That is a big advantage. Good luck. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
On 11/4/24 17:44, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 11/4/24 11:09 AM, Pocket wrote:
I am looking to setup an email server for home use. I want to replace a debian server on a RPI 4 to an archlinux arm on RPI 4. I have dovecot and postifix on the debian rpi presently. It is not working as needed.
It matters not what distro you use, it's all Linux under the hood. Postfix, dovecot, procmail is a good combination. You will need to ensure your ISP doesn't block ports (if you have a fixed IP/business account, you are likely fine)
I have scratch built operating systems for rpi 2,3 and 4, RPM package manager. Debian gives me gas.
Additionally you will want a firewall and tool to monitor failed authentication attempts for both postfix and dovecot. nftables with fail2ban or iptables/ipset with fail2ban are excellent solutions.
Firewalled already by nftables, no incoming allowed, only outbound and replies to outbound connections. Only certain local traffic allowed.
You will require a domain name and both forward and reverse mappings with entries in your domain providers DNS to have your mail accepted by other servers. Many block mail without a valid reverse lookup. (gmail will still block even with DKIM codes set and gmail seems to move the goal-posts frequently to keep you on your toes)
No domain name needed (alarm.home.arpa), I am already providing DNS for local (authoritive for local, recursive for all other local lookups. Hosted on a rpi 4). Don't need an MX record either. Will not use gmail as a smarthost.
You will need valid SSL certificates for your domain (Let's Encrypt is a great service providing free certs, certbot is a great tool for renewing the certificates). You can use the same certificates for https as well as dovecot.
I am my own SSL certificate authority.
There is a small learning curve to put it altogether, and you must make sure your mail-host isn't an open relay, or you will find your host on banlists quickly. The postfix and dovecot and procmail documentation is good, and there are 20 years worth of tutorials available. (make sure you are using current tutorials)
The firewall will not allow open relay. This server will not be a general email server. I don't need procmail. Fetchmail, dovecot and an SMTP server is all that I need.
That said, I've run mail-hosts for about 20 years and they work fine on Arch or any other distro. The benefit of Arch is you are always on the current version with up to date software instead of waiting for bug and security fixes to be backported. That is a big advantage. Good luck.
I just need help setting up multiple accounts (smarthost) to www.twc.com. One of the following, opensmtpd | postfix | exim. I had this working 20 years ago and now want to set it up again on a rpi 4. A lot has changed. And I don't mean that I am a lot older either. -- Hindi madali ang maging ako
I just need help setting up multiple accounts (smarthost) to www.twc.com. One of the following, opensmtpd | postfix | exim.
This is easy with postfix and well documented: http://www.postfix.org/SASL_README.html#client_sasl_sender Hope this helps Uwe
On 11/5/24 04:31, Uwe Koloska wrote:
I just need help setting up multiple accounts (smarthost) to www.twc.com. One of the following, opensmtpd | postfix | exim.
This is easy with postfix and well documented: http://www.postfix.org/SASL_README.html#client_sasl_sender
Hope this helps Uwe
I'll have a look at that and see if I can grok it. Thanks -- Hindi madali ang maging ako
On 11/5/24 8:11 AM, Pocket wrote:
On 11/5/24 04:31, Uwe Koloska wrote:
I just need help setting up multiple accounts (smarthost) to www.twc.com. One of the following, opensmtpd | postfix | exim.
This is easy with postfix and well documented: http://www.postfix.org/ SASL_README.html#client_sasl_sender
Hope this helps Uwe
Here is a simple tutorial on-point: Setup mail forwarding in postfix on (Ubuntu or Debian - doesn't matter) https://www.binarytides.com/postfix-mail-forwarding-debian/ You simply use virtual_alias_domains in main.cf to list the domains you will ACCEPT mail from and then use a file mapping e-mail addresses for the user received at your box and a second e-mail where to forward it to. You can forward all for a domain as well (see last example on page) If I were you, I'd just stick with postfix/dovecot (and if the box you are forwarding to isn't on your LAN, you will likely need a DNS entry and real certificate to prevent the off-site mail-host from rejecting the forwarded mail (if it is configured correctly) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
---------------------------------------- 5 Nov 2024 00:10:31 Pocket <pocket@columbus.rr.com>:
I am looking to setup an email server for home use. I want to replace a debian server on a RPI 4 to an archlinux arm on RPI 4. I have dovecot and postifix on the debian rpi presently. It is not working as needed.
I have looked at the relative wiki pages for postfix, exim, opensmtpd and dovecot. Looks like I may need help with the setup.
Need recommendations and setup help for one of the following:
SMTP postfix, exim, opensmtpd
I have some notes when setting up opensmtpd here: https://kilabit.info/journal/2023/replacing_postfix_with_opensmtpd/ I hope it can gives some light.
The server needs to send/forward email from alarm.home.arpa to mail.twc.com for several accounts.
Using opensmtpd I believe you can configure it at /etc/smtpd/aliases, but I have never tried it, since my setup is for personal, MTA-to-MDA. Regards, Shulhan
participants (5)
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David C. Rankin
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Pocket
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Polarian
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Shulhan
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Uwe Koloska