Whatever people may say, I run my own mail server on my DSL line at home (static ip), on a regular cheap PC. It's also the gateway, web server and a few things like that - since 2000.
It's currently running Dovecot, Postfixc, Roundcube, MySQL (even thus I plan to switch to PostgreSQL since, 10 years, but I'm lazy :P), amavisd-new, spamassassin.
It's setup with SPF records and DKIM. I used to have grey listing as well, but I turned that off a year ago.
I have several emails, and friends, family also, hosted there.
* Spam:
The "spam advantage" from Google's gmail makes me smile. I get less spam on my accounts, even the ones for which I post my email everywhere, than on my gmail account (which I never use anywhere, or even use for mail - its just my Google account - so its been guessed or used through OpenID, or Google leaked it somehow).
Even with grey listing off.
Some guys seems happy with their 2 spam a month on Gmail. Well I get zero spam a month. And I almost never have false positive either (happened maybe 5 times in 12 years? and those were very spam-looking emails from automated services which i actually wanted to read)
* Maintenance:
That makes me smile as well. Sure, I update the server every month or so. It's a 10min task. Stuff don't break. And yes, I know my stuff also, which helps. Backups are done via duplicity to a friend's system, and to a separate drive (had to switch the drives once)
Mail stay alive 5 days if box goes down. 12 years, did get network outages sometimes, never lost a mail. Not one. Sometimes, Ive friends with similar servers and we MX each others for safety, but that was not necessary up to now, because its never been down longer than a day (again its always "network outage" or "power outage" kind of issues).
* Interface. Well, I can understand it, but I don't care. Why? Because I very rarely use the web interface. I use IMAP clients and ssh+IMAP (mutt).
Sometimes, I do use the web interface, and RoundCube is actually very decently good, even if its not super complete. It's fast and enjoyable at least.
* Domains refusing to talk to me
Well, this has happened sometimes in the past. I sent requests for white list, and it got granted 99% of the time (in fact, its been only denied by trendnet). When denied I set the transport to use my ISP's SMTP. I haven't had to change those settings or make request in the last past 5 years or so. Again, its a much smaller deal than what you're lead to think.
It's currently running Dovecot, Postfixc, Roundcube, MySQL (even thus I plan to switch to PostgreSQL since, 10 years, but I'm lazy :P), amavisd-new, spamassassin. It's setup with SPF records and DKIM. I used to have grey listing as well, but I turned that off a year ago.
I have several emails, and friends, family also, hosted there.
* Spam: The "spam advantage" from Google's gmail makes me smile. I get less spam on my accounts, even the ones for which I post my email everywhere, than on my gmail account (which I never use anywhere, or even use for mail - its just my Google account - so its been guessed or used through OpenID, or Google leaked it somehow). Even with grey listing off.
Some guys seems happy with their 2 spam a month on Gmail. Well I get zero spam a month. And I almost never have false positive either (happened maybe 5 times in 12 years? and those were very spam-looking emails from automated services which i actually wanted to read)
* Maintenance: That makes me smile as well. Sure, I update the server every month or so. It's a 10min task. Stuff don't break. And yes, I know my stuff also, which helps. Backups are done via duplicity to a friend's system, and to a separate drive (had to switch the drives once)
Mail stay alive 5 days if box goes down. 12 years, did get network outages sometimes, never lost a mail. Not one. Sometimes, Ive friends with similar servers and we MX each others for safety, but that was not necessary up to now, because its never been down longer than a day (again its always "network outage" or "power outage" kind of issues).
* Interface. Well, I can understand it, but I don't care. Why? Because I very rarely use the web interface. I use IMAP clients and ssh+IMAP (mutt). Sometimes, I do use the web interface, and RoundCube is actually very decently good, even if its not super complete. It's fast and enjoyable at least.
* Domains refusing to talk to me Well, this has happened sometimes in the past. I sent requests for white list, and it got granted 99% of the time (in fact, its been only denied by trendnet). When denied I set the transport to use my ISP's SMTP. I haven't had to change those settings or make request in the last past 5 years or so. Again, its a much smaller deal than what you're lead to think.