hMailServer vs MailEnable

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xpd

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#195247 12-Apr-2016 10:16

I'm going to run my website and emails from a server at home, and have been looking at the various options out there for email servers and have decided to keep it Windows based for now, so have come down to the following - hMailServer and Mailenable.

Both have plus and minus points for me but leaning towards Mailenable to its built in webmail (hMail reqs additional PHP setup etc which i could do but prefer to avoid) but it seems to be lacking on the spam/AV side of things...

Anyone used either package and can give me your experiences ? :)

Only be using for approx 25 mailboxes. (A few users will be using it via IMAP, rest are POP)

TIA

XPD / Gavin

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michaelmurfy

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#1530613 12-Apr-2016 11:57

To be honest I wouldn't recommend hosting a mail server at home. If you were going to do it I'd suggest doing it right the first time - as in use a product like Microsoft Exchange (if you're truly wanting Windows) or put it on Linux w/ Roundcube (Webmail), Spamassassin and your choice of popular opensource mail server. Linux is not at all difficult to learn and there are many tutorials out there to set up a secure Linux based mail server w/ all the bells and whistles.

I've used hMailServer before, it works but to be perfectly honest by using one of these products you're severally limiting yourself in what you're actually able to achieve. If you're wanting the suggestion on what product to use then hMailServer has many points going for it including being opensource, appears to be better maintained and honestly Roundcube is blatantly easy to install on Apache (or IIS) + PHP.

Otherwise you can even put it on a Raspberry Pi and backup the SD card of the Pi nightly, or grab a virtual server which are really cheap these days and host it on a connection with a SLA. But honestly you're opening up a can of worms with hosting your own mail server - either leave it with the pros (as in, Google, Office, Zoho (which is also free)) or do it right the first time.

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ajobbins

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#1530713 12-Apr-2016 12:54

Why do you want to run it from home?

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xpd

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#1530720 12-Apr-2016 12:59

Main reason, cost. Already running a box 24/7, and fed up with paying for providers who always fall over in one way or another. Its only my personal domain, so if anything goes wrong, I'm not going to lose anything as such.

XPD / Gavin

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ajobbins

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#1530721 12-Apr-2016 13:01

My biggest concern these days with running anything externally accessible from home is that if anyone gets into your network through a vulnerability you can get pretty screwed.

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Zeon

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#1530723 12-Apr-2016 13:03

If you fit within their free tier this is 100000x betetr option than either:

https://www.smartertools.com/smartermail/business-email-server

Super simple to setup, excellent interface etc.

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xpd

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#1530738 12-Apr-2016 13:16

Zeon:

If you fit within their free tier this is 100000x betetr option than either:

https://www.smartertools.com/smartermail/business-email-server

Super simple to setup, excellent interface etc.

Unfortunately no good, I require approx 20. (Maybe a few less once I do an audit to see how many ppl are still using the mailbox I supplied them)

XPD / Gavin

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#1530853 12-Apr-2016 14:53

Have used hMailserver here at work and it is a good product. Put thousands of messages through it and it has been rock solid. There is more to mail than just having a mailserver though. Things like DNS records, making sure you have SPF records set up (-all is your friend). There are also a lot of guides on the hmail forums for recommended set up. Things like using multiple blacklists and appropriate spam scoring. Google are cracking down on non compliant mail servers and won't accept delivery for non compliant ones so you need to make sure you run through the Google mail sending checklists. MX toolbox also have a lot of tools to test your mailserver implementation. http://mxtoolbox.com/NetworkTools.aspx

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B