request: Mail server

[microkid]

Mail station is pretty useless imho. It just functions as an intermediate, but it can't handle multiple mail accounts or domains. If you have multiple persons in the house all with an own mail account, of if you have multiple mail accounts, Mail station can't help.
So I would like to see a light weight mail server. Instead of running a server with Kerio of MDaemon, the DS could run this mailserver and collect/send all mail. Such a mail server should have basic options like:
- support for multiple mail accounts (user1@yourdomain.com, user2@yourdomain.com etc)
- support for multiple domains per account (name@domain1.com, name@domain2.com)
- collect mail via pop3 (configurable per account)
- sent mail via smtp (configurable per account)
- MAPI functionality, so it can work with most mail clients
- web based mail
- store all mail on the Diskstation in the users home folder

[muffinboy]

+1

Exactly.

[HarryPotter]

Mail station is pretty useless imho. It just functions as an intermediate, but it can't handle multiple mail accounts or domains. If you have multiple persons in the house all with an own mail account, of if you have multiple mail accounts, Mail station can't help.
So I would like to see a light weight mail server. Instead of running a server with Kerio of MDaemon, the DS could run this mailserver and collect/send all mail. Such a mail server should have basic options like:
- support for multiple mail accounts (user1@yourdomain.com, user2@yourdomain.com etc)
- support for multiple domains per account (name@domain1.com, name@domain2.com)
- collect mail via pop3 (configurable per account)
- sent mail via smtp (configurable per account)
- MAPI functionality, so it can work with most mail clients
- web based mail
- store all mail on the Diskstation in the users home folder

Are you sure you ever studied the existing Mail Station? I cant see something in your list that is not yet possible. May be not via DSM, but at least on the CLI.

[Ollie]

Mail station is pretty useless imho. It just functions as an intermediate, but it can't handle multiple mail accounts or domains. If you have multiple persons in the house all with an own mail account, of if you have multiple mail accounts, Mail station can't help.
So I would like to see a light weight mail server. Instead of running a server with Kerio of MDaemon, the DS could run this mailserver and collect/send all mail. Such a mail server should have basic options like:
- support for multiple mail accounts (user1@yourdomain.com, user2@yourdomain.com etc)
- support for multiple domains per account (name@domain1.com, name@domain2.com)
- collect mail via pop3 (configurable per account)
- sent mail via smtp (configurable per account)
- MAPI functionality, so it can work with most mail clients
- web based mail
- store all mail on the Diskstation in the users home folder

Are you sure you ever studied the existing Mail Station? I cant see something in your list that is not yet possible. May be not via DSM, but at least on the CLI.

It would be really great if the instructions (for cli and mail server noob) on how to do all this were available somewhere. Been searching for a few weeks now and even posted a few times in this forum, to no avail.

[gkleijweg]

+10 for microkid's post. I was thrilled when Mail Station was announced, but very disappointed when it became available. Indeed, it is a mail server... just not the kind I was looking for

I too would like a mail server that collects mail from POP3 accounts and offers it via IMAP and webmail to the DiskStation's users. That way I could always access all my e-mail from the past 14 years or so.

Having mail delivered at home is something that I do not want, for the following reasons:

• I would be unreachable in case my home IP address changes (which unfortunately happens sometime). I need to manually update the DNS settings for my domain, so if I just don't know that there even is an issue, or if I'm on holiday then no mail could be delivered. So it gets lost entirely.
• if my ISP is doing maintenance on the internet connection, or if there is a failure in their network (which happens every few months or so), then again mail gets lost.
• if there is a power outage, then my appliances do not work, thus mail cannot be delivered and gets lost.

Hosting providers have servers with redundant part, they have a UPS, they often have multiple different connections to the internet to backup malfunctioning connections... so they obviously have some advantages. No offence, Mail Station is a good product, but unfortunately useless functionality for me and several others (there were a lot of complaints on Mail Station when it came out).

Centralizing storage and functionality is one of my goals for the next few years. For me, that includes mail. And if it remains impossible then I will find another way, which will either be QNAP (as I've read they can do this natively) or a mini-ITX Atom server with Windows and a mail server like Mercury Mail Transport System (a.k.a. Mercury/32) or Hamster Mail Classic, and of course some webmail application.

[HarryPotter]

May be you dont understand what a mail server is/does:

A mail server RECEIVES emails sent to him, its not his job to COLLECT mails (thats what a mail client does).

Lots of information about the command line can be found on the Synology Wiki and the Mail Station part of the forum contains nearly everything that is needed for managing the this powerful package.

[pinguino05]

+10 I and my colleagues !
Hi !

[Zarocq]

+1

I fully support this request. Why does it have to be this hard to get a simple mail station running? MX records, DNS forwarding, registration of your own domain and so on.
A simple collector from POP3 accounts would be so great. We're not all hardcore busybox experts.

[bolukan]

+1 for gkleijweg
If "Mail Server" is not the right name (HarryPotter), just invent a new name. E.g. "Mail Collector"

[deadkenny]

Having mail delivered at home is something that I do not want, for the following reasons:

• I would be unreachable in case my home IP address changes (which unfortunately happens sometime). I need to manually update the DNS settings for my domain, so if I just don't know that there even is an issue, or if I'm on holiday then no mail could be delivered. So it gets lost entirely.
• if my ISP is doing maintenance on the internet connection, or if there is a failure in their network (which happens every few months or so), then again mail gets lost.
• if there is a power outage, then my appliances do not work, thus mail cannot be delivered and gets lost.

Hosting providers have servers with redundant part, they have a UPS, they often have multiple different connections to the internet to backup malfunctioning connections... so they obviously have some advantages. No offence, Mail Station is a good product, but unfortunately useless functionality for me and several others (there were a lot of complaints on Mail Station when it came out).

IP address change you can deal with now with DDNS which will update the DNS settings if the IP changes. Or ask if your ISP can give you a static IP address.

If the connection is down or you have a power outage, SMTP servers almost always back off and try again later, often many times for a number of hours.

You can also configure additional MX records that work as failover so if the first server (your NAS) is not available, the sending server will try the next. In my case my second MX is my domain provider's mail server which is not a proper mailbox but is used to forward to another address. So I use it to failover and send to somewhere like gmail or hotmail.

UPS... dead cheap to get for home use. Worth it even if you don't run a mail server. Saves corrupted discs from a power failure. Can get ones that are similar to a regular home power strip instead of the big expensive boxes corporates use.

As a mail server, it actually does exactly what a mail server should do in terms of sending and receiving, just that home networks with dynamic IPs aren't the intended place to put a mail server. But it can be made to work.

However lack of interface to configure multiple domains is the major let down.

[myCloud]

The Postfix "Mail Server" in the DiskStation Control Panel works pretty well, including with multiple DiskStation user accounts--with or without the optional Roundcube web mail client Synology names Mail Station. These are common Linux programs Synology uses rather than reinventing the wheel with their own software.

A mail server receives incoming email for a domain and distributes it into user home folders, where an email client can retrieve it. It also accepts and forwards outgoing mail from email clients. The major problem with the Synology implementation is that it only accepts it on port 25, not on port 587, the now-standard submission port. There's a workaround for that.

There are problems with hosting an outgoing mail server on a residential ISP, but they can be worked around with relaying. Searching the archives here will provide detailed instructions.

For anyone running a DiskStation without a UPS, it's only a matter of time before a power loss or brownout causes file system corruption and loss of data. I wouldn't run one of these boxes without one.

[Basalt]

I too would like a mail server that collects mail from POP3 accounts and offers it via IMAP and webmail to the DiskStation's users. That way I could always access all my e-mail from the past 14 years or so.

Mail Server can do this, you can configure the POP3 accounts with Roundcube. This is webmail, but also enables imap. No need for CLI. To send e-mails from PC client you'd better bypass DS and send directly to your ISP.

BR,
Erik

[deadkenny]

To send e-mails from PC client you'd better bypass DS and send directly to your ISP.

Though if you're using a mobile device, netbook, laptop then you might end up changing the outgoing SMTP settings every time you go outside as a lot of ISPs won't accept outbound mail from another network.

I have my settings pointing to my domain for IMAP and SMTP and that works internally or externally, and my mail server (not the DS at the moment) then can send via my ISP if I wanted it to. Though to do this on a NAT network I have to run a DNS server that does local resolving also (dnsmasq in my case) as not all routers will do it. Failing that you end up having two sets of mail settings, one for internal, one for external. A right pain.