
Mail in a Box - mikece
https://mailinabox.email/
======
phs318u
For those considering running their own mail server (like me), perhaps a more
pertinent dataset is the list of hosters that seem to work without problem
(not spam blocked) and those that have proven problematic. If anyone could
chime in it would be much appreciated.

~~~
oats
I have been running my mail server on a digitalocean vps without any spam-
block issues for about 2 years now.

~~~
0x0000000
DigitalOcean no longer allows SMTP, you may be grandfathered in.

~~~
dredmorbius
At all, or by default?

In many cases, additional services (ports) are available on request. This is
largely a spam-management (outbound) issue for service providers.

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OzzyB
Nice to see this on the front page again.

I have been using Mailinabox for _years_ now, no problems, easy to use, even
easier to maintain.

All running on a $10 Linode instance == email freedom!

~~~
baroffoos
I was running mine on a $2.5/m vultr vps for a year. Upgraded to a $5 instance
for more storage and it has run almost maintenance free. In the rare instances
I do need to do something it mails me the details.

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leowinterde
Alternative is mailcow [https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-
dockerized](https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized)

~~~
pixelHD
I've used mailcow before. It's a pleasure to use and comes with a decent-ish
material design mail client as well.

~~~
whalesalad
Yikes. Any time I hear material design and associate it with an open source
project I know the UI is going to be a nightmare.

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dang
A thread from 2014:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8276171](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8276171)

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zerotolerance
I've been on MiaB since 2014, and aside from Gmail focused Chrome extensions,
I haven't had a single issue. Easily one of my favorite projects.

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oblib
I too have been using MAIB running on a DO VPS for about 2-1/2 years now.

It's a bit of a learning curve to get it up and running and then deal with
being blocked by some of the bigger email service providers like AOL, Hotmail
& Yahoo, but once you've gone through those hoops it's really much better than
outsourcing it.

I'm running my mail server on a $20 a month DO VPS and have about 25 email
accounts, 30 email aliases, and around 15 domain names being handled by it.

The built-in DNS server has really been a plus for me. I use the MAIB IP
address first on my home and office routers DNS configurations so I don't have
to wait for new domain names or changes to DNS records to propagate to test my
changes and additions.

Downtime hasn't been a issue for me. DO has been pretty great at keeping
things running on their end and the MAIB users forum has been there for me
when I needed help debugging an issue.

DO specifically states that running a mail server on their platform is not
recommended. This is because it has been abused by spammers and that is why
some email providers block IP addresses coming from DO.

My experience is that you have to contact those providers that block you and
go through the process of what's needed to get cleared on each of them. That
can take some time so it's not a seamless or quick and easy alternative but
once you've done that it's a much better way to handle both email chores and
users and DNS records for all of your domain names.

~~~
dbancajas
is MAIB or MIAB?

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lukifer
I've wanted to take complete ownership of my email for a while now, but it
seems risky, given the need for 100% uptime, and the anti-spam/deliverability
ecosystem of the major providers and senders (to say nothing of security
concerns, given that email is de facto auth for the vast majority of
services).

Has anyone done this? What were the pain points?

~~~
stas2k
You do not need 100% uptime to receive mail. Because email is store and
forward, other server will retry for a reasonable time.

The most complex part is setting up all the DKIM and friends to make your
outgoing mail authenticated.

~~~
GordonS
Was going to say much the same - other mail servers will retry failed sends
for several days.

Setting up the basics is relatively straightforward, but I found it tricky to
setup TLS correctly for SMTP and IMAP, and DKIM and SPF were _horrible_ to
configure and get working right!

I've been running my own mail server for 15 years or so - I really wish Mail
In a Box had existed back then!

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endergame
I consider Mailu to be one of the best alternatives if you want to use Docker
or have an infrastructure with Kubernetes. I've been using it for some years.

[https://mailu.io/](https://mailu.io/)

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EADGBE
> Most any cloud provider will do, but not Amazon Web Services because its
> network is often blocked to prevent users from sending spam

From their installation guide, if like me, you were considering running this
on EC2.

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hartzell
AWS throttles port 25 traffic but in theory you can petition to get it opened
up.

[https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-
center/ec2-p...](https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-
center/ec2-port-25-throttle/)

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DevKoala
I am confident I can run the service, but is there any easy monitoring
framework for it? What other learning experiences from people that run their
own?

~~~
rurounijones
It has munin support out of the box

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AtomicOrbital
I took a look at `Mail in a Box` a few years ago then discovered
[https://github.com/tomav/docker-mailserver](https://github.com/tomav/docker-
mailserver) which I have been running ever since with no issues ... I wonder
how these compare today

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chiefalchemist
"Mass electronic surveillance by governments revealed over the last several
years has spurred a new movement to re-decentralize the web, a movement to
empower individuals to be their own service providers again."

Yes. But if you're emailing to someone on say gmail how are you protected from
surveillance?

~~~
anjbe
You’re not. But using your own server means your flight itineraries, bank
statements, utility bills, and Amazon receipts won’t be surveilled (by them,
anyway), even if you occasionally send mail to GMail inboxes. If your enemy is
Google, then that’s a significant win.

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rkagerer
_Exchange ActiveSync is also available as a beta feature._

Wow! Anyone tried this? How's your mileage?

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jdjdjjsjs
This looks really cool. I couldn't find any info on the site, but anyone know
what sort of backup features are available built in?

If there isn't anything built in, what are other users of mail in a box doing
to backup their data?

~~~
baroffoos
It has a built in backup tool using duplicity that by default backs up to the
local storage but you can plug in your s3/b2 details and it will back up to
those. The backups are encrypted so amazon won't be reading your emails
either.

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Teichopsia
For someone considering running a (mail) server, what about security? For some
reason I have a feeling that guides like "my first 10 minutes on a server"
aren't enough. Am I wrong to think so?

~~~
baroffoos
Mailinabox is a fully configured service. You need a fresh ubuntu install, you
run the install script and it configures everything for you and notifies you
when it needs to be updated or something is not as it should be.

~~~
Teichopsia
So it handles firewall rules, disabling root login and all those details?

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dvko
Yes. And comes with a neat status page to warn you of any issues in case
things change (but they shouldn't if you use a dedicated box).

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sudhirkhanger
Which self-hosted contact and calendar server do you guys that also works with
Google's seamlessly?

~~~
baroffoos
mailinabox comes with a nextcloud instance which does contacts/calendar.

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55555
> "it's easy to set up"

> 17 minute video

a 1-4 minute video above the fold would help convince people better

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foobarbecue
I've been using this for four years for my personal email. Works great.

