I would like to elicit a simple solution for webmasters who needs to create simple forwarding email addresses for their websites.

I host a few dozen domains on my linode and I require an email to be forwarded from admin@domain (and a few other alias's) to my personal fastmail.fm email account. When I setup a new website on a new domain and I want to create a few alias's, here are the solutions that I know of;

1. Create DNS zone on linode. Setup a mailserver - Postfix seems the easiest and most secure. Configuration of virtual alias table is simple. Downside = maintenance is cumbersome (without writing shell scripts) and all the inherent risks associated with running a mail server.

2. Leave DNS with domain registrar and use their email forwarding service combined with URL forwarding to the website hosted on your linode. This appears to be the most simple solution, however I've never done this and dont know if this has any effect on SEO.

3. Create DNS zone on linode and point MX records to 3rd party mail service such as google apps or fastmail.fm. This solution seems about as simple and secure as option 2 however AFAIK, there is no free service which provides this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please vote in the poll.

Google Apps standard edition is still free, I use it for many clients.

For sending only I use postfix, for full email service, google apps.

I'm still seeking a KISS solution for email forwarding. This is a service most registrar's and web hosts offer for free, and would love to find a way to do it (for free) on linode as well.

Also, google Apps standard edition is no longer free

Linode is neither a registrar nor a web host, so it's quite out-of-scope. But, Postfix.

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Personally I'd prefer Postfix with aliases. That can even be done via shell script to make it easier. To be honest, I don't find Postfix hard to administer once it's setup and running properly. (of course I don't get a lot of email yet either)

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Kris the Piki Geeker

Am I really the only person in the world who actually /likes/ Exim?

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rsk, providing useless advice on the Internet since 2005.

Yes.

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/ Peter

After that tragic roller coaster accident in Sweden with the other 3 Exim admins - yes.

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Either provide enough details for people to help, or sit back and listen to the crickets chirp.
Security thru obscurity is a myth - and really really annoying.

Oh. Aw. Well.
I guess I really should have went to that memorial...

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rsk, providing useless advice on the Internet since 2005.

No. But apparently we're in the minority here.