up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

What is the simplest way I can get a secure, authenticated SMTP server running on my Linux machine so my family can use it to send mail from hostile networks?

Currently I have exim bound to 127.1:25 so if I can send mail from my laptop using ssh -L2525:localhost:25 wolever.net… But I'd like exim (or some other SMTP server) to bind to, eg, 0.0.0.0:2525 and accept authenticated SMTP connections.

What's the simplest way to do that?

link|improve this question
50% accept rate
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

Unless your family's sending over 500 messages a day, just use Google Apps. It's free and works extremely well.

You can use their SMTP servers to send from wherever. Since they're reputable, your messages are unlikely to be marked as spam... Especially if you setup an SFP record)

link|improve this answer
There are two reasons I'd rather not use them: 0) they won't let me use an arbitrary port (and ISPs around here block smtp/smtp+tls), 1) I believe they will require that I validate the source addresses (which is a problem for me, as I use a bunch of different “from” addresses). – David Wolever Aug 11 '11 at 20:56
I'm not sure they will validate the from address as email as a protocol astonishingly doesn't have a facility/requirement for that. Actually, I'm pretty damn sure I use a gmail account to send mail "from" somewhere that doesn't have anything to do with the account. As for the lame ISPs, I guess you could use SSH tunnels to locally open those ports. SSH tunnels pwn. – Doc Aug 11 '11 at 22:53
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.