Hosting your own mail server for free

TrafficMaster · 17 Dec 2016 at 14:34

So...

I wondered if it was possible to have a free small server in the cloud, AWS, Azure/whatever, and run a simple mailserver on it for my own personal use.

I would like to buy a domain and have a permanent mail server running 24/7 but do not want to pay.

Possible or impossible these days with AWS/Azure?

beh · 17 Dec 2016 at 15:18

It's not going to be free (beyond the first year) to use AWS or similar.

If you buy a domain a lot of places will also offer a free mailbox with it. Or just use gmail like everyone else?

To do it yourself is potentially quite a faff for something that isn't likely to be as reliable or secure.

Kol · 17 Dec 2016 at 15:34

I use my domain with google apps. Sure, it's not free and it's a 3quid a month but it's solid and reliable for the price of half a pint/month.

Buffalo2102 · 17 Dec 2016 at 16:42

I host my own mail but on a home server. All free except for the domain and a small charge to my ISP for a static IP address. I can't see you getting free hosting in the cloud, except as a free add-on with a domain, as beh says.

Some people say it's a pain to maintain but I haven't had any issues. But then I quite enjoy tinkering anyway.

neodude · 19 Dec 2016 at 18:00

Kol said:
I use my domain with google apps. Sure, it's not free and it's a 3quid a month but it's solid and reliable for the price of half a pint/month.

I also use my own domain with Google Apps, but I don't pay anything :confused:

Is charging a new thing?

Spooter · 19 Dec 2016 at 18:10

I also use my own domain with Google Apps, but I don't pay anything

Is charging a new thing?

I also use Google Apps with my own domain and its free. Thats because we both signed up in the early testing phases before they added the charges. All the original beta testers have remained free.

As for the original post. It's a good learning experience and hosting my own mail server is something I did before using google Apps but in the end I found it a pain.

In short...

I needed a UPS to ensure stability, I had to ensure my firewall, mail scanning etc were all up to date and patched.

Another issue I found is some organisations blacklist mail coming from non-commerical IP ranges. I also needed to use a service to keep my email if my home server was offline and keep retrying the delivery until it had succeeded.

I used to run Postfix, Dovecot, SquirrelMail and ClamAV on UBUNTU 9.10.

Ricimer · 19 Dec 2016 at 22:42

I'm running with a compromise at the moment.

Mail server hosted at home is Zimbra, but it's not used for mx records, mail is delivered to spamtitan which then forwards it to the mail server (static adsl ip, exceptions for spamtitan only for smtp).

It's not free, around £100/year now I should think for 10 email addresses filtering. On the plus side mail is queued on spamtitan for a couple of days when my home server is off/upgrading etc.

Only real issue is push mail with zimbra with the open source edition, but is is possible with some scripts, I just haven't gotten around to using a apache/nginx proxy in front to allow multiple hostnames to the same http/https ip.

Ricimer · 19 Dec 2016 at 22:44

neodude said:
I also use my own domain with Google Apps, but I don't pay anything

Is charging a new thing?

It's around £3 per user per month and has been for some time, the old free domains are gradually losing out on newer features akaik.

Sp00n · 20 Dec 2016 at 10:35

neodude said:
I also use my own domain with Google Apps, but I don't pay anything

Is charging a new thing?

It changed 4 years ago

rah^ · 20 Dec 2016 at 19:00

Got my own mail server, dns server and media server on an old laptop under my TV ..

Spooter · 20 Dec 2016 at 19:33

Got my own mail server, dns server and media server on an old laptop under my TV

What redundancy do you have for the mail server?

Just a thought for the original post. I think a Synology NAS can be used as a mail server and that has a pretty nice web interface.

rah^ · 21 Dec 2016 at 21:22

Spooter said:
What redundancy do you have for the mail server?

Just a thought for the original post. I think a Synology NAS can be used as a mail server and that has a pretty nice web interface.

Crash plan to backup the VM regular and thats about it

When I can be bothered I'll see if I can spin up a VM in the flat I am connected to and have that with its static IP as a backup mail server

its similar for the media server thats shared across 2 networks between me and a friends flat with no backup plan in place right now..

KIA · 21 Dec 2016 at 21:50

beh said:
To do it yourself is potentially quite a faff for something that isn't likely to be as reliable or secure.

This. Let the professionals take care of it.

JackRegan · 23 Dec 2016 at 17:10

I tried however as I'm with BT it didn't work. The mail kept getting caught by their filter. Thought about changing to Zen, but i just couldn't be bothered with the hassle.

Jamauk · 26 Dec 2016 at 13:42

I've got one running through Asterisk, as I'm with BT it is unable to send emails to the outside, I use it though for Asterisk voicemails that it sends to itself and is setup on Outlook. It can be checked from the outside world through the VPN which is needed to open Outlook as the .PST file is stored on the server.

If BT didn't block it then it would be an ideal mail server, albeit with no redundancy and there is also then the potential security risk which is why it is only used internally.

I'd rather rely on an outside company that has far more sophisticated systems with redundancy, etc. for a 'critical' mail system.

killsta · 12 Jan 2017 at 18:23

I've a VM from OVH that runs mail for a few of my domains.

You can substitute OVH for AWS/Linode/DigitalOcean etc, just install whatever OS you like and whatever software you like.

Caged · 12 Jan 2017 at 21:38

It's not worth the hassle of trying to deal with message delivery from a VPS provider when for the cost of a couple of coffees a month it can all be someone else's problem.

killsta · 12 Jan 2017 at 22:00

I guess that depends on the OP's reasoning.

You're right of course, I just assumed by the OP mentioning AWS that he may have the inclination to learn how to set up a proper (small) mail server

Deleted member 77746 · 15 Jan 2017 at 12:27

If you not willing to pay then either ask someone to host your domain since they will get so many parked domains for free / email accounts or sign up to a free email address with many free email solutions online.