Mike Peckar via WLUG <wlug@lists.wlug.org> writes:
I've noted that many of you host your own email and file servers,
I run a mail server (Postfix) as well as web and name servers on a Pentium ATX bought used 2012-09-27 for $225. It has a Tandy monitor that I have had since forever, and connects to the internet via DSL.
I've wanted to do this for several years,
Why? What to do depends on what you want to get done.
but I've been avoiding taking this on myself. This is due to the time investment (to learn tech I don't necessarily want to learn)
I run Linux because I _do_ want to know how it all works and be able to control it myself, ... at least sometimes. Sometimes I wish it would just work.
Quite frankly, I'm getting lazy in my old age and I'm considering a packaged solution/service like The Helm.
Why not gmail?
If a lazy guy like me sets up an email server, but then doesn't get around to applying security updates for half a year, is he just asking to be hacked?
You don't want to run an open relay, but a packaged server from a Linux distribution will not do that. Don't do something really stupid to change it. I don't think the chance of the server getting hacked is great. The server doesn't do much but copy Ascii characters from an internet port to your mail file. No harm in that. The crackers will be trying to trick you, some other user on your machine, or some stupid software, to treat that text as an executable program and run it. Don't do that! One example of a potentially stupid program is a web browser that treats the email as HTML and obeys javescript, downloads URL-s, and does a lot of automagic to give you a "user experience". In short---worry about the user interface and the user more than the mail server.
I am a local Charter customer with a standard internet-only subscription.
What does that mean? Not bundled with cable TV and telephone? The old question: Are they stupid or lying? It's not an XOR question. Sometimes it's both, and sometimes the meaning of words has changed. At one time internret service meant you got an internet address and packets sent to that address came to you. Now, it's not so clear, but internet-only might mean you get what you need to run a web browser and not one bit more. They may actively try to prevent other internet traffic.
I guess my question is, are the tech barriers to setting up a home email server really as formidable as claimed in the below justification from The Helm's web site?
From: https://blog.thehelm.com/post/how-helm-works-part-1-networking
I looked at that. They are trying to sell a stange shaped box. There is almost no information about what's in the box, at least on that page. Helm web page> Since announcing Helm three weeks ago That's a bit scary, but the web page is 18 months old. Maybe by now you can find some product reviews from one who bought it a few months ago. Helm web page> When you buy a Helm, a gateway (AWS EC2 instance) is spun up with an Elastic IP. I didn't know what is an "Elastic IP", so I Googled that. It looks like a Rube Goldberg plan to get Amazon Web Service to give you a temporary IP address without conforming to the DHCP RFC. I saw ominous references to an _hourly_ charge if your IP address is not used in the way AWS expects. Does Helm help get AWS to work, or just provide another level of indirection and recusive finger pointing? Helm> ISPs in the U.S. block port 25 by default, Helm> ISPs also typically assign dynamic IPs Helm> To summarize, port blocking, dynamic IPs and challenges in Helm> establishing a PTR record all interfere with easily running an email I don't know your ISP. I got my setup almost two decades ago from Speakeasy. Speakeasy was great. I could email a question Sunday night and have a reply from someone who understood the question and knew the answer by the time I woke up Monday. They set up reverse DNS, and ran a secondary name server for a one-time set up fee and negligble monthly charge. Speakeasy was sold to Best Buy, who sold to...Megapath... ...I forget...who sold it to GTT. With each sale the service got worse, until now it's a hassle to just pay the bill and get it credited to the right acount. They provide no service. They ignore email, but insist that communication comes via "tickets" on their web interface. These are handled by some bot-man who is paid to push a button that generates an auto-reply that says: "That is not a problem. The ticket is closed." I can't imagine getting this set up with my current Idiot Service Provider. Fortunately, they have (so far) not screwed up _all_ of the setup they bought. In particular I still have the same IP address and reverse DNS. I live in fear that some Idiot will "upgrade" my service by breaking something zey does not understand, and I will never get it back. Ask your ISP how to get an IP address with reverse DNS. If they do not understand the question, ignore it, of say $10,000/month, think of a new plan. -- Keith