Mail-in-a-Box email

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I used Mail-in-a-Box email during setup to use with Discourse. Mail-in-a-Box is an automatic self hosted email system where you run the script on a new Ubuntu 14.04 box with a dedicated domain name for email and it sets up everything for you and all you need to do is create email accounts and update the software regularly. I recommend it for managing your own email and it works for setting up an account for use with websites. I made server@r3df0x.net and I use that to send email from websites. You aren’t dependent on any third party service if you host your own email.

I ran into a problem where I couldn’t get the first activation email so I activated my account manually. I successfully sent a test email from the admin panel so it looks like email will work now. I rebuild the app several times since then and I changed the nameservers used by the email box to what it looks like Mail-in-a-Box expects, so this might have helped mail delivery.

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Cheap hosting for Mail-in-a-Box

Since one of the obvious goals of using Mail-in-a-Box is reducing expenses, it would make sense to host it on a very cheap hosting.

I initially wanted to use a 2.5$/mo VPS at Vultr. However, they refused opening SMTP ports, so I switched to a $5/mo DigitalOcean. Anyway, you’ll definitely want a dedicated VPS for your mail service.

Because that tiny VPS only has 512 MB RAM, you should setup a 2GB swap file before installing Mail-in-a-Box.

Dedicated domain name (cheap, too)

It’s advisable by Mail-in-a-Box to have a separate domain.

By comparing domain renewal and registration prices for various .TLDs at namecheap.com, I discovered one of the cheapest one is .com.de:

.work $6.88
.space $7.88
.one $8.88
.me.uk $5.69
.ws $8.88
.space $7.88
.bid $5.58 (5+ years)
.link $8.88
.com.de $4.88 (! cheapest)

Take into account that while registration price can be discounted, the regular renewal price may be high. So don’t forget to expand the “Renew” price section and search in there.

Please note with .com.de you won’t be able to setup DNSSEC, which improves email security, because this particular TLD (domain extension) does not support DNSSEC at the registry level (citing namecheap).

Step by step

Register domain name.

Create your new VPS, set its hostname to the domain name you just bought.

Check VPS’s IP against blacklists in MXToolbox. If blacklisted, destroy VPS and create a new one, and repeat until you find an IP that’s not blacklisted.

Mail-in-a-box can manage nameservers for you, but if you want to setup this way, first check whether your TLD requires two different IP addresses for nameservers, and whether you’re ready to purchase one more IP address. For instance, DO doesn’t allow more than 1 IP per droplet, so with a .com.de you won’t be able to get Mail-in-a-box to manage your DNS for you.

So, if you went this way, in your domain control panel, set two nameservers for the domain you just bought:

ns1.your-mail-dedicated-domain.com
ns2.your-mail-dedicated-domain.com

— Make both link to your VPS IP address(es). (instructions for namecheap.com)

Finally, setup Mail-in-a-box and follow instructions as by the link. The automatic installation process may take 10+ minutes, especially on small VPS.

Multiple domains

Mail in a box may service emails for multiple domains.

So I’m slowly migrating all my small projects from using 3rd party mail hosting (sometimes not free) to my own Mail-in-a-box (free in terms of direct expenses, but not free in terms of my time spent on configuration and maintenance). Ask me in a private message if you want me to setup a dedicated mail-in-a-box for you in your VPS.

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Note that you will still suffer from poor deliverability until systems learn to trust the IP you are sending from, which takes time and email delivery over a period of many months. And some systems will categorically never trust mail sent from shared hosting IP ranges.

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Just wanted to update that after ~1.5 years, I’m still happy with Mail-in-a-Box, and deliverability is no longer a problem since the IP gained some good reputation thanks to the Discourse way to rate recipients.

I know very little about the “reputation” thing, but I suppose the longer you send no-spam emails from your IP, the better is your reputation.

Will keep using my dedicated $5/mo Mail-in-a-Box server - and using it for 3 forums now.

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Thanks for this. I’ve been putting off running a mail server for several years now, but several things would be easier if I did. Glad it’s working out for you.

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如果其他人也遇到了这个问题，那么我也一样。请设置一个免费的 Mailjet 账户，并在您的客户 MiaB 设置中验证您的域名 SPF 和 DKIM。您仍然可以在 Miab 账户中使用 notifications@ 或 no-reply@ 等邮箱地址。但对于其他托管的事务性邮件（例如 Discourse 应用），从 Mailjet 获取的凭据将能正常工作，并减少设置过程中的麻烦。

附注：我认为在某些情况下，如果我在设置时非常有耐心，Miab 的设置也能生效。但我更希望帮助那些可能使用了自托管邮箱凭据、仍在等待最终验证邮件以完成安装却迟迟未收到邮件的用户。当我切换到我的 Mailjet 账户时，邮件通常在几分钟内就会收到。

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我们在使用 mailcow 搭配 Discourse 部署，邮件投递对 99% 的用户都很顺利。剩下的 1% 是 Hotmail 用户，我们建议他们使用其他邮箱地址。

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分享我最新的用于 mail-in-a-box 的 Discourse SMTP 配置，因为我刚安装了一个新的 Discourse 实例：

  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: my.smtp.domain.com
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_USER_NAME: mailer@mydomain.com
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_PASSWORD: mypassword
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: true           # （可选，默认为 true）
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_DOMAIN: mydomain.com
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_AUTHENTICATION: "plain"
  DISCOURSE_NOTIFICATION_EMAIL: mailer@mydomain.com
  DISCOURSE_SMTP_OPENSSL_VERIFY_MODE: none
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请注意，如果您是从最近注册的域名发送邮件，SpamAssassin 可能会人为地降低您的评分：

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image1155×711 103 KB

这确实是一项相当严厉的惩罚！

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