This is precisely my situation. I now run two Slint Linux 15.0 machines, but outsource both email and web hosting to panix.com. It just makes life simpler. In the past when I owned a business domain , I ran it on a local linux machine and had to maintain both postfix mail and apache web servers. This took up a good chunk of time so I gladly retired that part of my work. Rudy On Mon, Jul 15, 2024 at 07:55:14AM -0500, Tim Chase wrote: > Tim here. > > I've winnowed down my collection of Linux computers mostly because > I've migrated usage to a mix of FreeBSD and OpenBSD. That said, > they're similar enough that hopefully my answers will be useful. > > I host my own email but it's a non-trivial task. *receiving* email > isn't so bad, but there are a *lot* of hoops to jump through in > order to send email without the mail-monopolies flagging it as spam > or outright rejecting it. You need your DNS set correctly, your > reverse-DNS set correctly (not all ISPs/providers will do this for > you), you need to set your SPF and DKIM correctly in your DNS as > well as properly configure your DKIM certificates in your mail-server > (and have them renew regularly), and a clean IP address (it might > even depend on your netblock neighbors' behavior). > > I run OpenSMTP+Dovecot on it so my beloved can connect via IMAP/SMTP > from her Chromebook/phone, but for my own mail-reading I mostly > just SSH into the machine where I have tmux running and access my > mail folders directly on the VPS (I use mutt, but alpine or aerc > would work too). > > So for the common (not super-geeky) person, I'm a pretty big advocate > of outsourcing your mail (at least the sending part) to companies > that will handle these headaches for you. > > That said, the hardware requirements for hosting email are pretty > negligible. I have a ~$5/mo VPS instance with 2GB of RAM and it > is more than sufficient for my email and website. Storage would > need to be commensurate with your usage. But my mail-server has > ~30GB of space and my personal mail archive is under 1GB. For just > mail, you could get by with hardware specs comparable to a Raspberry > Pi because the requirements are low. Unfortunately, if you start > dipping into the lower-priced VPS instances (like the $3/mo), you > often encounter sullied IP-addresses/blocks where others have used > them for spamming, or the provider bans outgoing email (for that > reason) so it's a crapshoot. > > A quick tally around the house turns up 4 OpenBSD laptops and two > FreeBSD laptops (most are hand-me-down hardware) in addition to the > two OpenBSD and one FreeBSD VPS instances as well as one Raspberry > Pi which runs whatever OS I put on the SD cards. Most of the laptops > ran Linux at one point but have since been swapped out for BSDs. > > If you're venturing into running your own Linux (or BSD) machine > at home, I encourage you to try and obtain dedicated hardware so > you can experiment and repave it as often as you need. As you can > tell, I like hand-me-down hardware for playing around. > > -tim > > > > > On 2024-07-14 23:45, Karen Lewellen wrote: > > Hi all, > > many times I have shared that my entire Linux experience is tied to shell > > services. Dreamhost for my employer, shellworld for both my personal > > site, and an account with them. > > Because shellworld is still refusing to incorporate current email demands > > for ptr records for host names, I am wondering how others manage their > > Linux experience. > > If Your host your own email, have the equal of a Linux shell with several > > browsers and convert tools and so forth. > > Do you use a single dedicated computer, different hard drives, external USB > > drives, or partitions of a large drive? > > Aside from educating me, perhaps learning how uniquely one can run Linux > > might help others new to the concept. > > So, how does your Linux garden grow? > > Kare > > > > > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to blinux-list+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxx. -- Rudy Vener Website: http://www.rudyvener.com Check out my latest story: Dwindling at http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2024/02/14/starshipsofa-726-rudy-vener/ Need a Limerick Fix? Visit https://limerickdude.substack.com To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to blinux-list+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxx.