this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by vsis@feddit.cl to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
 

Hello. Let's say I want to selfhost an email server (smtp + imap) that only will be used to receive email.

I only will send email internally (from my domain to my domain) and receive from 3rd parties.

Should I setup DKIM, DMARC, SPF and reverse IP lookup?

To be honest, I'm having a bit of hard time understanding the madness of email authentication. So I can't figure it out by myself if those mechanisms are needed in my case.

I haven't deployed anything, but probably will use Stalwart. It looks like it's easy to deploy. Is there any other beginner-friendly email service I should read about?

Thanks!

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[–] lemmy_in@lemm.ee 23 points 10 months ago (8 children)

You should definitely set up a DMARC record to prevent other people from using your email domain to send spam. If you don't have DMARC configured, other email servers will give any senders the benefit of the doubt and accept mail that claims to be from your domain.

You can just set the DMARC record to reject 100% of unverified mail and call it a day. Since you aren't sending anything it won't affect you.

[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Some strict mail servers even blacklist you if the DMARC record is missing.

[–] 69420@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Some servers blacklist you even if you have DMARC, SPF, DKIM, DNS setup perfectly, but your IP is in a block of addresses that may or may not have been hosted by the same ISP of some unrelated server that was possibly compromised 10 years before you even set up the mail server. Ask me how I know.

[–] conorab@lemmy.conorab.com 2 points 9 months ago

Some servers blacklist you no matter what you do because you’re not a big player in the e-mail space… Outlook. Fuck Outlook. M365 doesn’t do that though.

Also the idea that reverse IPs are needed (in practice) when SPF, DKIM and DMARC are in use is insane. I have literally told you my public key and signed the e-mail. It’s me. You don’t need to check the damn PTR!

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