Linode Forum

daveporter · Joined: 06 Dec 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Australia

Hi everyone,

I'm about to sign up for a Linode 512

My initial reasons are to learn how to setup and configure all this stuff.

I'm coming from a cPanel background.

So I've made a list of things I need to do initially.

1. Choose a Distro - I've decided on Ubuntu 10.04
2. Set up DNS and a domain.
3. Create a database
4. Set up Mail (including redirections)
5. Install Wordpress

I'm sure most of this is going to be fairly straight forward once I start and access all the great support resources here.
One thing that seemed a bit scary was the docs in the library on installing Postfix! What is the best option for mail?

Once I get one domain working, I will probably host more. No end user facilities required, I will be the only one using it...
Any thoughts and recommendations appreciated!
TIA, Dave

daveporter · Joined: 06 Dec 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Australia

OK, got my site working - the guides are fantastic - all went without a hitch

Now that just leaves mail !

Any recommendations on the best way to go ?

Cheers, Dave

vonskippy · Joined: 27 Dec 2009 Posts: 469 Location: Colorado, USA

Google Apps

Running local email is PITA.

Depending on how many users your Wordpress domains have, you may be woefully under memory to run a local MTA with any decent type of SPAM filtering.

daveporter · Joined: 06 Dec 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Australia

Thanks for the reply...

But I don't really understand what you are suggesting :(

Dave

Daevien · Joined: 24 Aug 2009 Posts: 15

He's suggesting you basically follow this guide and use Google Apps instead of running your own mail server

http://library.linode.com/email/google-mail

daveporter · Joined: 06 Dec 2011 Posts: 10 Location: Australia

Gotcha! Thanks, will take a look....
regards, Dave

bryantrv · Joined: 11 Dec 2009 Posts: 126

Another vote for letting Google handle your email. For someone like me, who isn't a great server admin, it keeps email working even if I bork the server :).

swaj · Joined: 22 Aug 2010 Posts: 13

The free tier of Google Apps very sufficient for most folks. I honestly don't know why anyone hosts their own email anymore. Hell I'd even use the paid accounts over doing it myself. Email hosting is such a nightmare-inducing headache with SPAM, Malware, etc. etc.

Let Google do it for you. You get tons of features for free (like *push* to your iPhone through Google Sync). Unless you're an "SMTP whisperer" that writes Bayesian SPAM filters for fun, Google can (and will) do a better job than you :)

waldo · Joined: 21 May 2009 Posts: 336

swaj wrote: I honestly don't know why anyone hosts their own email anymore. Hell I'd even use the paid accounts over doing it myself.

Yep. If I'm ever forced into not being able to use the free versions, $50 per year per user isn't really all the bad when I think about the time and headache.

Guspaz · Joined: 26 May 2009 Posts: 1150 Location: Montreal, QC

waldo wrote: swaj wrote: I honestly don't know why anyone hosts their own email anymore. Hell I'd even use the paid accounts over doing it myself.

Yep. If I'm ever forced into not being able to use the free versions, $50 per year per user isn't really all the bad when I think about the time and headache.

Well, remember that the $50 per user applies to all user; the first few aren't free.

The free version supports up to 10 users at the moment, and this is always decreasing. Initially up to 200 users were free, then 100, then 50, and now 10, a 95% reduction.

If you're a free customer with 10 users and need to add one more user, you will have to pay $550 per year, a hefty jump. If you're a grandfathered free customer with 200 users and need one more, then boom, you're paying $10,050 per year. For just one more user. Ouch.

At this point, google apps free is only really useful for personal use...

rsk · Joined: 24 Nov 2009 Posts: 306

Amusingly(?), I'm actually moving mail back onto my Linode...

http://consumerist.com/2011/07/google-deletes-last-7-years-of-users-digital-life-shrugs.html

(Too bad the original post is deleted now, I remember it).

voidfaction · Joined: 21 Mar 2011 Posts: 8 Location: Noblesville, IN

I found the email guides in linode library to be very good to get dovecot/postfix setup on debian squeeze. Then used guide here > http://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=Debian_6.0&p=mail&f=6 to add clamav/spamassisin.

I tried the google way but google quickly became the source of most spam after signing up for it. One of the biggest reasons for running my own server was to get away from the companies that sell my info and email address

hybinet · Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 1058

rsk wrote: Amusingly(?), I'm actually moving mail back onto my Linode...

http://consumerist.com/2011/07/google-deletes-last-7-years-of-users-digital-life-shrugs.html

(Too bad the original post is deleted now, I remember it).

There are several alternatives to Google Apps, especially if you're willing to pay a bit of money: FastMail, TuffMail, Runbox, LuxSci, etc. They also tend to have better and more personal customer support than the Google behemoth.

Golfguy · Joined: 03 Dec 2011 Posts: 9

I was about to set up my own linode 512 as well. Did you set up a LEMP or LAMP? Was wondering which guide you followed to do so. I was looking at a LEMP with Wordpress myself, just hoping it goes smooth.

Daevien · Joined: 24 Aug 2009 Posts: 15

Tons of guides at http://library.linode.com/

As far as LEMP vs LAMP, it all depends on your knowledge level and what you need/want the server to do. Some stuff is a pain to get working without apache, many things though just work fine with nginx. Personally, I mostly use nginx and don't have any problems with it. For wordpress, you will need to configure the rewrite rules manually since wordpress tries to use apache's .htaccess but that is the only issue I really found with nginx & wordpress

Recommendations on getting started ?