Category Archives: email

Installing postfix in freenas jail

email, Freenas, Postfix

As part of my occasional series of how I used my FreeNAS server as the heart of my home network, I decided to transfer my mail/IMAP server from a standalone Linux box to a FreeNAS jail.

Linux Configuration

This machine is only serving as the mail server, so it needs a minimal install with sufficient packages to support mail. It doesn’t need the overhead of running X sessions.

  • Linux: OpenSUSE 12.3
  • Postfix
  • Dovecot
  • Apache server
  • postfixadmin
  • eGroupware
  • fetchmail
  • PHP and perl support
  • Some support tools such as the PostgresQL command-line client

The hardware running this is an old laptop (circa 2005) with a fairly modest specification (by today’s standards).  An Intel Celeron processor, 700Mb memory and a 60MB HDD with a 100Mbit ethernet connection.  However, looking at the load on this system, it is spending most of it’s time idle.  The backend PostgresQL database used by postfix and the groupware product is already sitting in another FreeNAS jail. Continue reading Installing postfix in freenas jail →

My own domain? Why should I get one?

email, Opinion

A friend was asking me about my email address (lonbil.co.uk) and wanted to know why I hadn’t just stuck with my gmail address or ISP-provided email address.

As we were in a rush, and the question was tangential to the task at hand, I told him I’d have a think about it and get back to him.

Types of address

I would classify email addresses into 4 broad groups:

  1. Work addresses: This will be something along the lines of john.doe@megacorpintersolar.com
    This has a lifetime of your employment with Mega Corp Inter Solar. When you leave, you email address will probably be de-activated.
  2. Free Addresses: These are your gmail,hotmail and yahoo type addresses. These are fine for personal contacts, and as contact addresses for websites and mailing lists.
  3. Vanity Addresses: I use this term to cover addresses for domains you own, but are named like thedoefmaily.org or jonathanliversingstoneseagull.org.
  4. Your Own Domain: This is identical to the both the work and vanity address-type address, but is not looks more like an organisation or business and is not (obviously) tied to an individual (or family).

Pros and cons of each type of address

Continue reading My own domain? Why should I get one? →