There is just one thing that's been haunting me.

One.

Thing.

That I have yet to succeed at doing.

One thing.

That I have yet to understand it's mazehole.

ONE THING.

That I failed me as a developer.

How in the FUCK do I create my own mail server with my own domain name? HOW? JUST FUCKING HOWWWWW

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE SECRET!

WHAT AM I MISSING!!!!!

(no don't tell me about any of those office 365/GoDaddy/Windows bullshit, just guide me with something normal)

Get a domain
Get a server
Link domain to server
Configure MX records
Setup the new server and create a user
Install a mail server like postfix
Configure postfix
Configure firewall
Create a directory structure
Activate postfix and test

Before sending emails to any other address than yours though, you might wanna take a look at SPF, DKIM and DMARC records to minimize the chances of your message being marked as spam. Getting a dedicated IP address is essential too.

However if you want to send a big amount of emails, the best practice is to hire a service such as GetResponse, they have the means to do that with lower chances of messages being marked as spam.

However I don't think I'd do that unless I was really concerned with privacy. There are services that already give you a lot of features for less than the price of a vps instance, plus you don't have to deal with complex configurations. Email servers are rabbit holes.

@lucaspar

"Getting dedicated IP address is essential"

*Looks at bank account*

*cry*

*rip state*

But really thank you so much for your answer, I'll of course going to try that once I get ahold of an IP address.

BTW aren't those records that you mention ISP specific? Like you have to let them configure it for you or something?

And is there a way to do just that using dynamic IP with DDNS? (Stupid question I know)

@lucaspar The point is to not really use it professionally and at scale, the point is to learn how to do it and make it actually work, like that time when I figured out how to make my PC discoverable on the internet (aka hosting server for web and games) only to have it get ddoses to oblivion (good days), that's what really matters to me, if I was browsing my emails and my 8-yo self curiosity kicked in, then I would be able to face it with an answer.

Learning (or observing) new stuff is nothing without executing it. (For example look at CS graduates who never try anything other than focusing on their study and grades, where do they end up?)

@Revenger it's great you want to explore these topics, that makes you a much better professional over time.

By your questions regarding ISP and dynamic IP, if you're trying to setup an email server on a local physical machine of yours, allow me to suggest: don't. As you may have experienced before it's not a great idea to expose your personal computer (or network) publicly.

The DNS entries you'll configure where you have your domain nameservers pointed to (usually where you bought your domain, like GoDaddy or Google Domains). They don't depend on ISPs because they're a global configuration linked to your domain.

AWS and GCP have a free tier that you can use with machines, I think with GCP you wouldn't even have to pay for the dedicated IP, you can use the $300 credit they give you. With Amazon however, I'm not sure if their free tier covers it, but you could look it up.

Here you go https://workaround.org/ispmail/... good luck

Get a domain and a vps. Install iredmail on that vps. Set the DNS records the right way. Install ssl certs.

Profit?

https://digitalocean.com/community/...

https://reddit.com/r/selfhosted/...

Instead just get an email host that allows for custom domains like yandex, zoho mail, ..

If you're still set on the madness that is hosting your own mailserver, then check out this list: https://github.com/Kickball/...