Email Server
 

Hello Friends.

I have no issues with attempting this myself but my issue is that I do not know where to start. Book, eBook, html guide.. whatever..

I own a static ip and my forward/reverse dns works fine. The network side of it is fine. What I wanna do is have my own personal email account hosted on my own linux box. I can, at a later time, get involved with the spam blocking etc and all that but I just wanted a fun Email server for home/personal... But I know not where to start.

Any suggestions? I did google searches etc but most responses were specific to their provider situation or really just not what I was seeking (error on searching on my part? probably).


Or, is a WebServer I host myself better?

You need to install an MTA, as Postfix, Sendmail, etc.
This will get your mail going.
To deliver it you need an MDA - POP3 or IMAP server, or both.
Now you can send and read your mail locally.
To be able to receive mail from net you need a valid MX record.

Slackware should include all you need out of the box. It includes sendmail and procmail as well as a number of MUAs, but sendmail, like many powerful programs, is a beast to configure.

Here's a Slackware-specific article to help you get started.

Here's another: http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:net..._dovecot_mysql

You need a program or programs to send and receive mail (Mail Transport Agents or MTAs) such as sendmail, a program to process the mail (Mail Handling Service or MHS) such as procmail, and a program to read and reply to the mail (Mail User Agent or MUA). Once you have them, you need to configure them to all work together.

I don't have a mail server, but I do use Mutt on this computer as an MUA and to do that, I had to set up MTAs (fetchmail and msmtp, in my case), and an MHS (procmail). I did a podcast on the process for Hacker Public Radio; you might find it and the accompanying shownotes helpful.

Setting up your own mail server is quite a project, but it will also be a great way to learn more about Linux and about how the internet works.

Afterthought: It would be a good idea to make sure that your ISP's terms of service allow having a public-facing server with your account. Here in the USA, many ISPs do not, at least not without a business-level account.

Century Link is my ISP which I also have a Static IP.. I own a Domain through DOTSTER and as I said Forward/Reverse seem to work both ways correctly as well as all other services, ftp, email etc all point to (from dotster) to my Static IP..
Art this point I think what is remaining are the items you and Emerson mentioned..

I will admit to this, though... What both of you said comes across as quite intimidating to me and it has made me second guess.. Ugh, I don't want to be that way but it just seems so "big".

It is big.

It's not something that you will make work in a day; but, if you poke at it in a determined fashion, you can make it work.

I think it took me several weeks to get Mutt working properly, with the help of a number of HOWTO links, most of which I listed at my HPR link.

But I can say this: I'm really glad it did it. It is one of the most valuable learning experiences I've had with Linux since I set up my own web server (doing which was what motivated me to use Linux in the first place 10 years ago). I no longer self-host, mostly because my blog's *.sql database got too big for the machine I was using as a server and because I moved to a location where the ISP is actively hostile to self-hosting, but what I learned while I did it will never leave me. Plus it was a heck of a lot of fun, except when stuff broke and I had to fix it all on my ownsome all at once because my blog is my baby and I care about it and stuff like that there.

I say go for it, for the learning; you can still run mail clients like Thunderbird or Kmail or Claws (my favorite) to deal with your mail while you are doing so. If you don't want to tackle setting up a mail server, try setting up a mail client like Mutt (now that I'm using it and have gotten the hang of it, I must say I really like Mutt).

What you learn will never leave you.

I have no problems giving this an attempt, or several.

So aside from the setup mentioned in http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:net...ifx_with_cyrus , I will need to also setup "(Mail Transport Agents or MTAs) such as sendmail, a program to process the mail (Mail Handling Service or MHS) such as procmail, and a program to read and reply to the mail (Mail User Agent or MUA). Once you have them, you need to configure them to all work together. " to actually utilize what I configured?

Really stupid question as I know I should know this..

My Slack 14.1 has 4.1.13 Kernel (no reason why, just was having fun with compiling).

The Tutorial I was following that you mentioned, mentions to install Postfix from the Slackbuilds 13.37 with the 2.8.3 postfix from postfix site... As I said I have 14.1 so on Slackbuilds.org I referred to the 14.1 Install and the postfix.info which itself refers to 2.11.4.
That is fine, I just got the "newer" one and not the one mentioned in the tutorial.
I gave it a try and it mentions;

make -f Makefile.in MAKELEVEL= Makefiles
(echo "# Do Not Edit -- this file documents how Postfix was built for your machine.": /bin/sh makedefs) >makedefs.tmp
ATTENTION:
ATTENTION: Unknown system type: Linux 4.1.13
ATTENTION:
make: ***[Makefiles} Error 1
make: ***[makefules] Error 2

My major problem within Linux is modifying files to work with other versions that are different. I simply do not know where to begin.

Be patient with me

Hi, this is a guide to setting up a email server
It's also with the premise of making it secure which is nice

http://sealedabstract.com/code/nsa-p...il-in-2-hours/

When you go to online tutorials, you may find some that favor postfix, some that favor dovecot, and so on. The MTA in a tutorial often depends on the preferences of the person who wrote the tutorial.

As I think I mentioned, sendmail is a powerful program and one which is equally complex to configure. Frankly, it intimidates the heck out of me. It really doesn't matter so much which program(s) you choose to fetch and send mail, so long as they fetch and send the mail.

When I set up Mutt, I went with fetchmail to get the mail and msmtp to send the mail because they are both easy to configure.

Here's a very good link to setting up Mutt; it's the one that helped me the most: http://docs.huihoo.com/gentoo/resour...e-to-mutt.html
(If you have not used Gentoo, note that the references to emerge are references to the Gentoo package manager, not references to a program you need to make Mutt work.)

Having a MUA on your mail server is nice, so you can log on over SSH and read your mail while away from home. But you can use a GUI based MUA from another machine, I use Claws. And if you open port 110 to world you can read your mail from anywhere.

The ability to pick and choose which components will result into a specific product/function that you want is absolutely fascinating. It is one of the reasons Linux, Slackware, has been so appealing to me.
Though I do not imply that I am anywhere beyond Novice, I also understand a good amount of variables about how Slackware/Linux works.
On one hand I understand Linux is not a simplistic self-contained .exe that makes all your worries go away but on the other hand I just do not understand how on a Step 1 or Step 2 on an established system that I get the error I did which I mentioned in prior post.
I see that and all my hopes and dreams just crash.. I have no idea where to even begin. Why does it matter that I am on a different Linux Kernel than the one it looks for? Did that much change within the Kernel that reflects how it (postfix) works?
Is it a superficial error and too literal for the sh program to install and is a simple fix?
My pride does not want me to switch to an alternate route or setup because #1 if you can do it, why can't I and #2 the more options I am given the more disconnected my head will become.
The How-To, though I understand there are variables to different systems (but i am using the same setup /config more or less) is very descriptive and enjoyable to read and I want to complete my task at hand.
I suppose I could try an alternative MTA but I think it would be nice to at least do as is mentioned.. using postfix working with cyrus.
I do not want to sound narrow minded to only want to do that but for me to understand something it would be easier to do it as is in the How-To to get it working and then I can look into other better/different options.

I do not want it easier I just want to understand it.

Sorry, just me ranting.

You need a newer version of Postfix, the way I interpret the error is your kernel is too new for Postfix version you are installing.

I thought that as well I believe..I think.. But I also got the Postfix from the Slackware-14.1 directory so I assumed it was the latest... I will obviously have to go back and check because what you say sounds correct.

Even so, isn't the error still superficial? I mean, what has changed in the kernel (whose to say i even compiled anything that changes that. maybe i just did my video card) so is there a way to make it work with my Kernel?
My problem is I either don't think outside the box or I do too much.

The version check is there probably just to make sure the kernel is not too old. You could go ahead and disable it.

Oh.

/facepalm

:)