this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
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I'm exploring some options to see if it's viable to self host my email account. Currently I have:

  • A home server that I can host the entire email stack but I cannot open the SMTP port there
  • An AWS account where I can create a VM with SMTP ports open to the internet and reverse DNS support, also I have a domain and AWS SES configured and approved to send emails

Ideally I would want to send and receive from my home server, but that is not possible, so I'm exploring some alternatives:

For receiving emails:

  • Cheap VM with postfix and my home server with dovecot, essentially forwarding all emails to my home server where I want them to be. I don't know if this setup works tho.

  • Keep everything in a VM, with the downside that I'll need to do extra work there as it will have all my data. If possible I don't want to go that route.

For sending emails:

  • Sending from the same VM receiving emails, and have everything managed

  • Use AWS SES to send emails in my behalf

Any input or opinion is appreciated. I'm currently exploring options, I haven't made any decisions, so if you have a better alternative feel fee to share.

Thanks!

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[–] subtext 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

To be fair, the SMTP RFC (5321) says that senders MUST retry sending upon a failure (source), but it only specifies that they SHOULD have a retry of 30 minutes, and an even weaker recommendation to continue to try for 4-5 days before giving up.