How to build a mail server?

[akialwayz]

I'm planning to start a small business and I want to build  a small server/pc for hosting website,file server,etc so i thought maybe i should get it working as mail server too.Can anyone tell me how i can built one,what all i would need(would i need a special connection?,software,etc). I know most servers use Linux but I'm not good at coding and I'm a total noob in Linux.Is there any programs to easily do what i want in windows server environment?.If not, I'm willing to learn Linux.If any of you have done a similar setup,can you give me some tips and how to's.Thank you

 

P.S-I know you can buy website hosting,server from bigrock,godaddy,etc.I don't want any of that.I want to have my own physical server.

 

I live in a residential area and one of my spare bedroom is going to be the office.I can get a business connection if needed but can i be OK with a normal home internet connection?

[Call_Me_Daddy]

Hi,

 

 

Even if you mentionned that you're aware of it, I'd strongly suggest to go with all in one rental solutions as long as if you're a beginner, you're more likely to be missing some points and introduce security flaws in your network. Plus it will way cheaper and you still can build a local network storage server.

 

However, if you still decide to go with it. You'll need a server, preferably linux / debian but others work also very well (MS Server, even Mac OS Server, depending on your computers pool).

 

There are tons of ways to build a servers and it will mainly depend on your usecase (how many simultaneous connexions, what bandwidth...).

 

Regarding the internet access, it's not necessairly to go with a business access as long as you're able to get a static public IP address and to setup network redirections.

 

The only thing that you'll have to rent is a domain name.

 

 

I hope this helps !

Vincent

[Acedia]

If you honestly want to grow a small business get Office365.

Full Office suit, plus Exchange Online, Teams, Sharepoint, OneDrive etc. etc. for like $15 per month? Unbeatable.

[IAmAndre]

18 hours ago, akialwayz said:

I know most servers use Linux but I'm not good at coding and I'm a total noob in Linux

Just for that I would highly recommend to not even try since this process is rather complex even for an experienced/certified Linux user. Actually it's part of the Level 2 certification if I recall correctly. And even if you end up successfully setting up your email server, making other mail services consider it as "not spam" is another big task to do. You'd be better off using a dedicated email service since they are already trusted worldwide.

[Acedia]

 

On 3/16/2019 at 6:53 PM, akialwayz said:

I live in a residential area and one of my spare bedroom is going to be the office.I can get a business connection if needed but can i be OK with a normal home internet connection?

I just reread your comment. No, you won't be. To recieve mail on your server you really need a good static IP. There are workarounds with paid mailgateways or you could try setting up a dynDNS but this will result in a ton of dropped mail since the IP you get will be blacklisted on many antispam systems.

I can only urge you to go with Office365 and you won't have to deal with any of that.

If you insist otherwise:

1. Get a domain
2. Get a static public IP on your internet connection
3. Get 2 racks
4. and 2 UPS
5. and 2 Switches to connect the two
6. Get cableing run between them
7. Set up a 3 servers (Let's say Windows Server 2019) preferably get two physical servers and create the AD and Exchange VMs on one, backup on the other. Keep the second one in a different location. This means you need at least 32 Licenses.
8. Also buy Server CALs and Exchange CALs for all your users or computers
9. Set up Active Directory on the first
10. Install Exchange 2019 on the second
11. Configure Exchange 2019, remember to install the prerequisites and join it to your Active Directory domain
12. Port forward port 25/tcp and 443/tcp to your Exchange
13. Set mx records on your domain pointing to an a record
14. set up an a record on your domain pointing to your domain
15. Call your ISP and set up a PTR corresponding to your MX
16. Set up an SPF record for your domain
17. Set up DMARC
18. Set up DKIM
19. Buy and install a SSL certificate for your Exchange Server
20. Set up autodiscover or Outlook 2013 and upwards or any up to date mobile devices won't work properly
21. Optional: Join your PCs to your Active Directory Domain
22. Install and setup a Backup Solution on the third server, also joined to your AD Domain.
23. Abandon this and get Office365.

[myselfolli]

Spoiler

17 hours ago, Acedia said:

 

I just reread your comment. No, you won't be. To recieve mail on your server you really need a good static IP. There are workarounds with paid mailgateways or you could try setting up a dynDNS but this will result in a ton of dropped mail since the IP you get will be blacklisted on many antispam systems.

I can only urge you to go with Office365 and you won't have to deal with any of that.

If you insist otherwise:

1. Get a domain
2. Get a static public IP on your internet connection
3. Get 2 racks
4. and 2 UPS
5. and 2 Switches to connect the two
6. Get cableing run between them
7. Set up a 3 servers (Let's say Windows Server 2019) preferably get two physical servers and create the AD and Exchange VMs on one, backup on the other. Keep the second one in a different location. This means you need at least 32 Licenses.
8. Also buy Server CALs and Exchange CALs for all your users or computers
9. Set up Active Directory on the first
10. Install Exchange 2019 on the second
11. Configure Exchange 2019, remember to install the prerequisites and join it to your Active Directory domain
12. Port forward port 25/tcp and 443/tcp to your Exchange
13. Set mx records on your domain pointing to an a record
14. set up an a record on your domain pointing to your domain
15. Call your ISP and set up a PTR corresponding to your MX
16. Set up an SPF record for your domain
17. Set up DMARC
18. Set up DKIM
19. Buy and install a SSL certificate for your Exchange Server
20. Set up autodiscover or Outlook 2013 and upwards or any up to date mobile devices won't work properly
21. Optional: Join your PCs to your Active Directory Domain
22. Install and setup a Backup Solution on the third server, also joined to your AD Domain.
23. Abandon this and get Office365.

 

Or just skip straight to step 23...

 

I consider myself to be a somewhat experienced linux user, but I too gave up on setting up my own mail server since it was such a hassle (and I never actually got it to work properly). The biggest problem was actually getting other mail services to accept my e-mails and not drop them (they wouldn't even be marked as spam, just straight up rejected).

 

Seriously, get a hosted option...

[akialwayz]

On 3/16/2019 at 11:33 PM, Insorior said:

Hi,

 

 

Even if you mentionned that you're aware of it, I'd strongly suggest to go with all in one rental solutions as long as if you're a beginner, you're more likely to be missing some points and introduce security flaws in your network. Plus it will way cheaper and you still can build a local network storage server.

 

However, if you still decide to go with it. You'll need a server, preferably linux / debian but others work also very well (MS Server, even Mac OS Server, depending on your computers pool).

 

There are tons of ways to build a servers and it will mainly depend on your usecase (how many simultaneous connexions, what bandwidth...).

 

Regarding the internet access, it's not necessairly to go with a business access as long as you're able to get a static public IP address and to setup network redirections.

 

The only thing that you'll have to rent is a domain name.

 

 

I hope this helps !

Vincent

 

On 3/17/2019 at 1:09 AM, Acedia said:

 

 

On 3/17/2019 at 7:15 AM, IAmAndre said:

 

 

19 hours ago, Acedia said:

 

 

2 hours ago, myselfolli said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Well I decided to go with Ms office route since it more stable, but i wont completely abandon the idea.I'll do it as a pet project later

Thank you all for replying and helping me out.