Any cheap/good email server hosting?

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A

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
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I'm using shared website hosting for my domain, but I wonder if I can move the email hosting outside of my current shared web hosting.

My goal is to eventually go VPS and having to deal with setting my up own email server (at this point) seem a daunting task.

I only pay less than $10/month for my shared web hosting with included email services. I don't suppose there is a cheap option? :) I'd like to keep it under $17-20 when I go VPS with external email services.

Or is setting up email server, managing accounts, dealing with backups, etc not as bad as I think?


(I don't know what forums this belongs in, please move if needed.)
 
Nothinman

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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Depends on your level of experience and the software you choose. I could setup a decent SMTP and IMAP server on Linux with Postfix and Cyrus or Courier IMAP in a few hours.

I keep thinking about getting a personal VPS for myself as well but never get around to it. Having my local mail server pull mail from Gmail works well enough for me right now.
 
K

KayGee

Senior member
Sep 16, 2004
268
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76
Nothinman said:
Depends on your level of experience and the software you choose. I could setup a decent SMTP and IMAP server on Linux with Postfix and Cyrus or Courier IMAP in a few hours.

I keep thinking about getting a personal VPS for myself as well but never get around to it. Having my local mail server pull mail from Gmail works well enough for me right now.
Click to expand...

Sorry to intrude, but I just got an Ubuntu Server 10.04 box up and running about a week ago. It's at home behind a router and configured with DynDNS. Are there any easy-to-follow guides that'll help me get mail working? Thanks in advance.
 
A

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
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I have experience with web dev and can get around Linux (at least Ubuntu).

Too bad there's no 2-3 step process for setting up an email server. I can get a web server up in a few minutes, but of course I've do it so many times and they make it extra easy. This makes moving a web server around easy too. I can't imagine how much work it'd take to backup, and prepare a new email server, restore on a new host.

I was late to cancel a trial VPS account, so I guess I have at least 3 weeks to try it on the VPS though I don't have an extra domain to link the email server to.
 
K

Ka0t1x

Golden Member
Jan 23, 2004
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For a basic config, I'm pretty sure this meta works well enough... (Ubuntu 10.4)

Code: 
sudo apt-get install dovecot-postfix
-this will use your local user accounts, but its possible to modify into ldap/sql and virtual mail.


There's a bug with a plugin, they renamed the plugin file but did not fix the config file. 'cmusieve' should be just 'sieve' .. but I forget which file to change.
 
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A

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
4,491
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76
troytime said:
i've been using google apps as well, for personal and business
Click to expand...

It's $50 per user per year..? :(

I'm looking to have at least a few email accounts for my website or myself. Most accounts won't be too active but they'll still be good to have, like 'support' or 'admin' and various accounts named for their services.
 
A

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
4,491
0
76
KayGee said:
Sorry to intrude, but I just got an Ubuntu Server 10.04 box up and running about a week ago. It's at home behind a router and configured with DynDNS. Are there any easy-to-follow guides that'll help me get mail working? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I just found this: http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual-users-domains-postfix-courier-mysql-squirrelmail-ubuntu-10.04

It looks pretty detailed, but long. I'm a little hesitant to do it just yet, but it seems like the guide to follow when I get around to it.

Let me know how it goes.
 
T

troytime

Golden Member
Jan 3, 2006
1,996
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aceO07 said:
It's $50 per user per year..? :(

I'm looking to have at least a few email accounts for my website or myself. Most accounts won't be too active but they'll still be good to have, like 'support' or 'admin' and various accounts named for their services.
Click to expand...

its only $50/user if you go with the pro version. (which i have)
I set up my domain with a single catch all email address, and use google apps to manage it.

my wife and clients do the same, but not with the pro version.
I really don't know what the difference between a free one account is vs a $50/year one account is - for all I know i could be pissing away 50 bucks a year for nothing :)
 
Crusty

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
2
81
troytime said:
its only $50/user if you go with the pro version. (which i have)
I set up my domain with a single catch all email address, and use google apps to manage it.

my wife and clients do the same, but not with the pro version.
I really don't know what the difference between a free one account is vs a $50/year one account is - for all I know i could be pissing away 50 bucks a year for nothing :)
Click to expand...

You are :p. I would only upgrade to the 'Pro' if I had more users than the free allowed. The 'pro' also gets you the 99.9% SLA, but when was the last time even Google had major outages?
 
K

KayGee

Senior member
Sep 16, 2004
268
0
76
aceO07 said:
I just found this: http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual-users-domains-postfix-courier-mysql-squirrelmail-ubuntu-10.04

It looks pretty detailed, but long. I'm a little hesitant to do it just yet, but it seems like the guide to follow when I get around to it.

Let me know how it goes.
Click to expand...

If you don't really have any preference for a MTA/MDA, the command
Code: 
[B]sudo apt-get install dovecot-postfix[/B]
works beautifully. You just have to make sure Postfix is configured to accept mail for your chosen hostname. Here's the link for more details :

https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/postfix.html
 
A

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
4,491
0
76
KayGee said:
If you don't really have any preference for a MTA/MDA, the command
Code: 
[B]sudo apt-get install dovecot-postfix[/B]
works beautifully. You just have to make sure Postfix is configured to accept mail for your chosen hostname. Here's the link for more details :

https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/postfix.html
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll give that a try also. I am leaning a bit towards Courier since it supports external database, which I'm thinking would make it easier to move my server around and do backups. I understand databases, so the fact it supports databases somehow makes it feel more comfortable to me.. :)

The email server will be hosted on VPS (most likely), so one of my concerns is the ability to do simple backups and moving data if I need to switch VPS.
 
Crusty

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
12,684
2
81
If you're going to roll your own I would recommend Postfix for SMTP and Dovecot for IMAP/POP3 access. Both can be configured to read the same database for authentication. You use Postfix for your mail routing for incoming mail as well as outgoing from your users and Dovecot for client access.

Make sure to get a reverse DNS entry setup and a proper SPF record as well. For Spam/Virus I've used a combination of spamassassin, amavis-av, and clamav in a chain with great success as long as you keep it all up to date.

For backups, if you use the maildir format you can just backup your mailbox folder every night or however you choose.

Running your own email server is a chore IMO.

All this is moot though if you plan on paying for a control panel like cPanel that can do all of this setup and maintenance for you. :p
 
K

KayGee

Senior member
Sep 16, 2004
268
0
76
aceO07 said:
Thanks. I'll give that a try also. I am leaning a bit towards Courier since it supports external database, which I'm thinking would make it easier to move my server around and do backups. I understand databases, so the fact it supports databases somehow makes it feel more comfortable to me.. :)

The email server will be hosted on VPS (most likely), so one of my concerns is the ability to do simple backups and moving data if I need to switch VPS.
Click to expand...

I agree completely with Crusty's Postfix-Dovecot recommendation. To be honest, setting up the mail server took me less than 15 minutes which I wasn't expecting at all. Of course, this is primarily only for personal use since it's running on an old Dell at home, and I only ran some tests to ensure that my server isn't an open relay. I've checked the logs and so far, there are no problems and everything seems ok. Hopefully, things stay that way.
 
A

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
4,491
0
76
Just to update, I did go with Google Apps. Set it up this weekend. I just didn't have the time to implement the other solutions. It doesn't seem too vital at this point to have my own email server.

Google apps was pretty easy to set up. The only immediate weakness seems to be that I can't log in from the gmail.com site.
 
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