New to Linode, suggestions for an email solution

If you want to use your Linode as a mail server, I believe there are tutorials in the Linode Library (or StackScripts) to help.

But you probably don't want to be stuck without access to your email when something goes wrong with your server, because that's exactly when you need your email the most…

So let's look at external email services.

If you have $50/year to spare, Google Apps is a good choice. If you already use Gmail, everything should be familiar.

Outlook.com (Microsoft) allows people to use their domains for free, but last time I checked, the management interface was thoroughly crappy and the whole setup just screamed "recipe for disaster".

If you have less than $50/year but more than $0/year to spend on an email solution, you can hop over to EmailDiscussions.com and look up some of the email hosting companies that are often mentioned in their forums. I've used FastMail, TuffMail, PolarisMail, Runbox… They're all fairly reliable, have decent spam and virus filtering, and cost between $10/year and $40/year depending on what other features you need.

Regardless of which company you sign up with, the most important thing is to get the MX record(s) right. Is the DNS for your domain hosted with Linode? If so, it should be straightforward to add MX records that point to your email hosting company. If your DNS is hosted with your registrar (like GoDaddy or NameCheap), you should make the changes on their website.

Thanks for replying and giving me some pointers.

I've had a look through the StackScripts and have been put off the idea of looking after my own email by what looks to be a fairly complicated process.

Also, it's email. It serves a purpose but that's about it, I'm not going to develop it and am not really interested in playing around with its inner workings like I am a web app or site.

I'll probably go with Google apps, it's reliable and I'm already using their suite elsewhere.

Thanks again for replying. :D