Problems setting up Postfix,Dovecot... for mail server.

Hello all,

i am trying to set up a mail server using a script from LukeSmith. I asked already the linode-support to lift all SMTP port restrictions and in my ufw-firewall i did open all the ports i need.

If i "telnet mail.[…].top 25" i get :
Trying 2a01:7e01::f03c:92ff:…
Connected to mail.[…].top.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.[…].top ESMTP Postfix (Ubuntu)
421 4.4.2 mail.[…].top Error: timeout exceeded
Connection closed by foreign host.

,so i think the dns is working, but i can not log into the mail acc via thunderbird or any othere client, my problem is, that i really do not know what the error, so i am really glad for some troubleshooting advice.

Thanks a lot.

4 Replies

@kobold323232 --

You write:

i am trying to set up a mail server using a script from LukeSmith.

Let me give you some friendly advice (I'm one who had to learn how to do this in the school of hard knocks)…

Unless you know exactly and specifically what this script does and how it does it, it's probably not going to work for you very well. You're going to be continually putting band-aids on the results until you have an absolutely unsupportable mess.

Take some time; educate yourself on what postfix(1) and dovecot(1) do; learn the configuration models; etc. Use your knowledge to start off simple and build on your experience. You'll learn a lot more; your mail server will work a lot better and you'll be able to add enhancements a lot more easily with a lot more confidence.

-- sw

A year ago as a proof-of-concept I set up a mail server using the Mail In a Box script: https://mailinabox.email/

It was easy and it worked great.

Running a mail server and keeping out the spam and off the black lists can be a PITA so I gave it up.

I have a small $5/mo. shared server with one of the major ISPs and I run mail though that via the MX DNS record. It is easy to split web traffic to Linode and mail to the ISP via the DNS records at the registry.

Al

@acanton77

You write:

A year ago as a proof-of-concept I set up a mail server using the Mail In a Box script: https://mailinabox.email/

I would suggest that there’s a big difference between a production mail server and a “proof of concept”.

Did your proof of concept include setting up SPF, DKIM & DMARC? All of these involve correctly configuring DNS TXT records. You need all three of them before other ISPs will accept mail from you. How about reverse DNS?

For postfix(1), DKIM/DMARC involve setting up 3rd party milters too.

Then there are spam defenses…

— sw

Over the years I've come to hate managing an email server. So many annoying problems. I found Modoboa and setup my mail server with multiple domains in minutes. For installation see https://modoboa.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html

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