Email servers on Linux kill me... it was all so simple with hMail or even Exchange on windows 😕

Get ready to be picked apart by devRants Linux fanboys. 🙃

Yeah well, it’s the third week now that I am struggling with my dockerized Mailserver :(

If your mailserver is actually expected to communicate with the final destination mailservers, OS and mailserver application do not really matter (even if choosing the dreaded sendmail).
Get ready to learn a lot more about how to make other mailservers accept mail from your mailserver than you could possibly learn about how to configure the actual mailserver.

Obligatory compile it yourself on arch and you can run it with imap on a raspberry pi before lunch. It's so simple 😋

@Oktokolo my current problem is that I can’t even connect to my mailserver from my pc using several apps. Telnet works fine tough

@SortOfTested that actually was my plan 5 years ago.

@dsteiner
You've been installing a mail server on arch for 5 years?! Only 4 more to go 😆

@SortOfTested nah, I wanted to setup a Mailserver on a raspberry pi at home for testing purposes

Maybe it‘s time to find someone who can help you in person. Hey @Linux do you know about mail servers on @Linuxxx ?

@dsteiner
Just to be sure: You telneted to the mailserver in its container and exchanged some SMTP commands to make sure, that the connection really works?

Exchange is a pest....

Mailservers internal are usually fine, use wireshark if you have no clue what's going on. It has a low learning curve and is incredibly helpful in pinpointing the trouble maker.

External mailservers.... I wouldn't recommend setting them up.

Lot's of work to do, especially when high traffic of newsletter or shit like that. *bleh*

All I will ever touch is mailhog and postfix. They work great, they solve all my smtp issues. Do it efficiently and without a shitload of dependencies or licences.

@Oktokolo Yup. That works fine. @IntrusionCM well it’s supposed to run on my dedicated server to serve my mails - just as it has done on windows for the past four years

How the fuck is dovecot + postfix complicated?

@dsteiner
When telnet from the client machine to the mailserver works, but the mail client can't connect - it likely is a mail client configuration problem.

Also if you don’t want your server to be hijacked deactivate telnet and use ssh like any sane person would do. Telnet is a security nightmare.
And heck install fail2ban to block bots bruteforcing your server.

@heyheni
Telneting a demon's port and performing the initial handshake interactively (emulating the demon's protokol of course) is a sure way to test, whether the demon is connectable on the port and responds to new connections.
If you combine telnet with openssl, you can even test SMTP authentication using STARTTLS.

@heyheni telnet is used to manually send SMTP commands. It can be used to test the unencrypted port if a mailserver by hand (which is an exercise at my school lul)

@heyheni I did. But you can still use telnet to communicate on other ports.

@dsteiner
Beware that telnet from the same machine may be possible while telnet from another machine may not.
Always test from a client machine to make sure, that nothing on the way interferes with your connection.

I don't manage manual mail servers (have done that and its not that hard) but I run a mailcow server and its easy as hell...

@linuxxx I’ve been looking at mailcow. Seems to be more advanced than the package I’m currently using

@dsteiner Could be haha. For me it was literally changing a config file and running the containers and done!

@linuxxx do you happen to know if it still works behind a reverse proxy? (Traefik to be precise)

@dsteiner No clue. I don't use it behind a reverse proxy but: https://mailcow.github.io/mailcow-d...

If you could convert that to Traefik, I don't see why it wouldn't work :)

Just use iRedmail.
Done

@linuxxx works now. Was some work but i figured it all out :) they even have a section about traefik in the docs

@dsteiner hey cool! anything else you need advice on? 😊

@heyheni not for now. I am just wondering if there is a way to ditch SOG that comes with mailcow and use nextcloud instead (also for the active sync integration) or if I have to dig into the config files or mailcow to do that