Relay

A relay is simply another mail server that you give your outgoing mail to, rather than try to deliver it yourself.

There are many companies that specialize in this. Sign up for a free account and they give you the block of text to add to your postfix config. Some popular ones are:

• SendGrid
• MailGun
• Sendinblue

They allow anywhere between 50 and 300 a day for free.

SendGrid

Relay Setup

SendGrid’s free plan gives you 50 emails a day. Create an account, verify your email address ([email protected]), and follow the instructions. Make sure to sudo apt install libsasl2-modules

https://docs.sendgrid.com/for-developers/sending-email/postfix

Restart Postfix and use mutt to send an email. It works! the only thing you’ll notice is that your message has a “On Behalf Of” notice in the message letting you know it came from SendGrid. Follow the section below to change that.

Domain Integration

To integrate your domain fully, add DNS records for SendGrid using these instructions.

https://docs.sendgrid.com/ui/account-and-settings/how-to-set-up-domain-authentication

This will require you to login and go to:

• Settings -> Sender Authentication -> Domain Authentication

Stick with the defaults that include automatic security and SendGrid will give you three CNAME records. Add those to your DNS and your email will check out.

Technical Notes

DNS

If you’re familiar with email domain-based security, you’ll see that two of the records SendGrid gives you are links to DKIM keys so SendGrid can sign emails as you. The other record (emXXXX) is the host sendgrid will use to send email. The SPF record for that host will include a SendGrid SPF record that includes multiple pools of IPs so that SPF checks will pass. They use CNAMEs on your side so they can rotate keys and pool addresses without changing DNS entries.

If none of this makes sense to you, then that’s really the point. You don’t have to know any of it - they take care of it for you.

Next Steps

Your server can now send email too. All shell users on your sever rejoice!

To actually use your mail server, you’ll want to add some remote client access.

• Set up Dovecot