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Best solution for own mail server?

washboardmac
Grafter
Posts: 76
Thanks: 7
Registered: ‎26-03-2013

Best solution for own mail server?

Hi Y'all
Your thoughts on the following are appreciated.
I have a Synology NAS that has email server capabilities and so thought I'd give it a go for my own learning purposes.  I help a couple of charities with their IT and they have Synologys too and I'd like to wean them off yahoo and mail.com!
I have a domain which is set up with a DDNS name and this all works dandy.
So I set up the server on the NAS and configured Outlook 2010 as an IMAP client to this.  While there I also set up IMAP on Outlook for my everyday gmail account.
I was happily sending test emails between the two when I starting error messages from the NAS regarding relay access (I wondered why the first few messages got through!).  Now the NAS does have a relay option in its SMTP set up and I configured that for relay.plus.net and all seems ok.  I did a test and the sender is shown as the original sender's address, not the relaying address; a problem I'd read about somewhere - not necessarily regarding plusnet's servers though.
So my question is really about continuing to use the relay server or choosing the 'use SMTP' option in the Member Centre.
I did read that setting up SMTP in the Member Centre would 'break' IMAP and I'm presuming, though maybe wrongly, that that refers to IMAP access to plusnet's own email service, which I don't use.  So is there any advantage to be gained by getting a fixed IP and 'disabling' the plusnet mail system?
Anybody done this?  What was your mileage?
Ta
Andy
4 REPLIES 4
HairyMcbiker
All Star
Posts: 6,792
Thanks: 266
Fixes: 21
Registered: ‎16-02-2009

Re: Best solution for own mail server?

I used to run my own mail server for my domains.
I had it picking up imap & pop3 from various servers with no issues.
If you setup smtp then you don't need to relay through pn anymore. But you will be better off with a static ip and reverse dns setup to point to your domain. (otherwise things like gmail will complain they cant find your reverse dns and not deliver mail)
I just use goggle to host my domain now though. Less hassle, better spam and plenty of storage.
washboardmac
Grafter
Posts: 76
Thanks: 7
Registered: ‎26-03-2013

Re: Best solution for own mail server?

Hi HB
Thanks for your reply.
I left the gmail-based account in Outlook pointing to their own servers as I didn't want to mix up the two mail accounts.
And yes I think a fixed IP would be better for more than just the email server.  Certainly avoids the sometimes flaky Synology DDNS service.
Point taken re. google hosting.  My NAS is used as a basic lab for 'playing' with packages and temporarily hosting sites.
Cheers
Andy
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Best solution for own mail server?

Quote from: washboardmac
So my question is really about continuing to use the relay server or choosing the 'use SMTP' option in the Member Centre.

The SMTP option basically change the MX records to point to the IP address of where your server sit. So this option can only be used if the server has a fixed IP and is for delivery of emails not for sending.
As for sending I had to relay through PN servers for some domains especially MSN as their spam checker tend to reject mail from privately ran email servers. With my email server I could specify by domain ie gmail.com or msn.com which smtp server to use.
washboardmac
Grafter
Posts: 76
Thanks: 7
Registered: ‎26-03-2013

Re: Best solution for own mail server?

Hi itsme.
Yes after re-reading the appropriate Member Centre page I now see that the SMTP option is for receiving not sending.  In my 'defence' the use of the word 'delivery' had me confused!
So relaying it'll be then. 
And a fixed IP for good measure.
Cheers
Andy