How do I support email on my linode
Hello, i need to setup a an email service for a website i just created.
Coming from the dedicated e-commerce Hosting providers like Bluehost everything seems easy to spin up.
I would appreciate some help on how to set up a email server like Roundcube, where i can
create email dedicated to my domain info@example.com
send and receive emails.
This is the most help i need for now.
Thanks in anticipation
2 Replies
I would appreciate some help on how to set up a email server like Roundcube
Roundcube is an email client…in the parlance, a mail user agent (MUA). It's easy to install. Just run the installer and follow the instructions.
What you're asking about is an email server…a mail transfer agent (MTA). Given that you are asking for help, I'm assuming you know zero about how email works. Given that, setting up and maintaining an email server is going to be a daunting task. Once you know what you're doing, it's pretty straightforward. However, getting to the "know what you're doing" point can be a pretty big hurdle.
Bluehost has a team that manages their server(s) and you share resources with everyone else. That's why it's "easy to spin up". You don't have to do any work…you pay Bluehost to do it for you.
What I would do, is just set up your software to use Gmail to relay your mail. No muss, no fuss… As long as the email volume is low and you don't send spam, Google won't complain about the traffic. See:
https://www.siteground.com/kb/gmail-smtp-server/
Also, Linode blocks email ports for new Linodes. You have to make a support request to unblock them. See:
https://www.linode.com/community/questions/21713/cannot-send-mail
-- sw
I had excellent results spinning a new Linode server and installing this on it:
Running an email server is a PITA if you have dozens of email accounts.
The Gmail solution is a good one.
I have several domains on my Linode and each one has several email addresses. I don't want to run my own mail server. So what I suggest people do is get a cheap shared hosting account on some ISP that will give you unlimited domains with each having up to say 500 email addresses. (I use pair.com but Bluehost is good too.)
Once you have the domains and boxes set up on the ISP just go to whoever is doing your nameservers (i.e. your registry) and create the DNS records (i.e. A and CNAME records) to send web traffic to Linode and mail traffic (via MX records) to your ISP. It is easy to do and there is a ton of documentation on how to do it via Google.