Email Is Hard
After spending way too long on this project, I finally have email service running. Who knew email was such a pain in the neck to set up? I certainly didn’t.
Email is a very old technology, invented in the 1960s with the first mainframe computers. It was a founding technology of the internet, enabling things like listservs, and communications between friends. But, since it was so simple, it was easy to manipulate and take advantage of people.
The creators of email decided to add security measures to make sure bad people couldn’t send manipulative or unwanted emails to others. They used the DNS (Domain Name System) to try to verify that whomever it appeared sent the email, was the actual sender. They invented things like SPF records, DKIM records, and DMARC records as different email attacks became known. These all are designed to create a system that verifies the sender of the email.
Unfortunately, because of the simple unsecured nature of email, it is still vulnerable to attack. Today, email is the primary means by which an organization can be compromised by an intruder. Organizations have resorted to focusing on sender reputation as well as user education to defend against email attacks. If an organization has a bad reputation amongst another group, then that group decided to block all email from the organization. You can check your own organization’s email reputation with tools like MxToolbox .
Since taking on this project, I have struggled with setting up email. In typical Linux fashion, (for me anyways) I have tried 4 different systems with varying degrees of success, finally going back to the original email system I tried at the start; Mail Cow.
When your account becomes active, you will be able to sign into mail 3 differnet ways.
- NextCloud, (preferred method, since it won’t require a different password)
- Webmail client at mail.truaxweb.com. (Uses a separate password.)
- Mail app on your phone, tablet, or pc. (Uses a separate password.)