what is it?
mail-in-a-box allows you to become your own mail service provider in a few easy steps. It’s like creating your own gmail, but one that you control from top to bottom.
technically, mail-in-a-box turns a new cloud computer into a working mail server. but you don’t have to be a tech expert to set it up.
This is how you can run an email mailbox:
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what’s inside the box?
Each mail-in-a-box provides webmail and an imap/smtp server for use with mobile devices and desktop mail software. also includes contacts and calendar synchronization.
The box also includes other standard mail features like anti-spam (spam filtering and greylisting), mail filter rules, automatic email client configuration, and automatic backups to amazon s3 and other services, and exchange activesync (for recent outlook versions) as a beta feature.
The box also includes automatic DNS configuration when you allow it to become your nameserver so you can set important DNS records for mail delivery and security, including spf, dkim, dmarc, and mta-sts. When enabled, dnssec (with dane tlsa) provides a higher level of protection against active attacks with other mail servers also running dane tlsa. tls certificates are automatically provisioned from let’s encrypt. (For more information, see our security practices.)
Your mailbox can host mail for multiple users and multiple domain names. It also supports simple static website hosting (since the box is serving http anyway), or you can host a website elsewhere (just add custom dns records in your mailbox control panel). /p>
mail-in-a-box includes a web-based control panel where you can add custom email accounts, email aliases and dns records, and set up backups. The dashboard displays comprehensive health checks for DNS records and system activity/monitoring and supports TOTP-based two-factor authentication for login. control panel functionality can also be accessed via the quiet http api (api documentation).
Please note that while we want everything to “just work”, we cannot control the rest of the internet. other mail services may block or filter spam sent from your mailbox. this is a challenge faced by everyone running their own mail server, with or without mail-in-a-box. see our discussion forum for advice on this.
how do I get it?
The setup guide will walk you through setting up your own box. users report that it takes only a few hours to get to a fully operational system. And check out the video above!
if you’re an expert and you have a domain name and a brand new ubuntu 18.04 machine running in the cloud, you basically just run on that machine:
You will be asked to enter your desired email address and a few other setup questions. the script will install (and uninstall!) and configure a few dozen ubuntu packages and the mail-in-a-box control panel. see the setup guide for complete details. see the readme on github for advanced instructions.
Note that the goal of this project is to provide a simple, out-of-the-box solution. Basically, there are no configuration options and you cannot modify the machine’s configuration files after installation. if you’re looking for something more advanced, try iredmail or modoboa.
note: mail-in-a-box maintainers work on mail-in-a-box in their limited free time. your mileage may vary.
why build this?
The massive electronic surveillance by governments revealed in recent years has spurred a new movement to decentralize the web again, a movement to empower people to be their own service providers again.
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Although the core protocol of email, smtp, is inherently decentralized, in practice email has become very centralized because it is so difficult to implement the dozens of modern protocols that surround it. mail-in-a-box takes care of all that and nothing else.
This is important not only for privacy, but also for the web’s ability to evolve and improve as it always has: through everyone’s ability to see how it works, modify and propose innovative changes.
help
if you need help, check the maintenance guide and then ask in the forum. If you think you’ve found a problem in mail-in-a-box or don’t get a response in the forum, open an issue on github.
We will post announcements and security advisories on our twitter account @mailinabox, the announcements section of the discussion forum, and our slack chat (see above).
Don’t Tweet Questions: Always start in the forum so others can also benefit from seeing your question.
report spam/fraud/abuse: mail-in-a-box is not really a mail service at all. it’s more like a cookbook on how to create a mail service; therefore, we have no way of knowing who is following the recipe and we have no control over the people who bake our cake to hide a poison. Like cake, there are many recipes for creating mail servers besides mail-in-a-box (Microsoft Exchange Server is one of the most popular), and we are unlucky when sometimes someone with bad intentions chooses ours. In other words, we do not control how people use mail-in-a-box and we have no technical or legal means to disable other people’s services. you may want to check out the mail-in-a-box discussion forum and coordinate with anyone who has recently reported a similar situation.
development
mail-in-a-box is based on ubuntu 18.04 lts 64-bit and uses well-documented shell scripts and a python management daemon to configure the system. take a look at the diagram of the system architecture and security practices.
Please note that the goals of this project are . . .
- make it easy to implement a good mail server.
- promote decentralization, innovation, and privacy on the web.
- have automated system configuration, auditable and idempotent.
- no make an nsa-proof server totally unhackable (but see our security practices).
- no make something customizable advanced users.
In addition, this project has a code of conduct, which replaces the previous objectives. check it out when you join our community.
mail-in-a-box is dedicated to the public domain using cc0.
joshua tauberer (@joshdata) started this project in 2013 and is the lead developer. Thanks to all contributors!
acknowledgments
This project was inspired in part by the blog post “nsa proof your email in 2 hours” by drew crawford, sovereign of alex payne, and conversations with @shevski, @konklone, and @gregelin.
mail-in-a-box is similar to iredmail and modoboa.
mail-in-a-box is based on postfix, dovecot, z-push, roundcube, nextcloud, apache spamassassin, postgrey, nginx and other open source software.