> But the second (far more important) point I want to make is please *THINK > TWICE* if "running your own mail server" is something you are planning to do > on your home internet connection.
For all intents and purposes, sending emails from a private internet connection directly to the receiving MX stopped working 15 years ago. (People started blocking everything with "dial" or "dyn" in the reverse DNS or HELO not being followed with the matching reverse DNS of the connected IP.) It should be in all books and tutorials by now. Word on the street has it that the IP networks of the cloud providers are slowly getting burned too. To live hassle-free you want your MX to have a static IP from a good "commercial neighbourhood", with a reverse DNS that matches the SPF entry and with your server's HELO greeting. Check whether your IP is listed on a DNSBL https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx Demand a different one from your provider if it is *before* you associate your domain with it! (Or let the IP idle for a year or two.) Plus: Thanks to Let's Encrypt and the super easy acme-client in base there are no more excuses not to have a valid certificate. Of course that is only true for your MX. You can host your mailboxes at home as long as you relay through said MX. OpenSMTPD + Dovecot (Sieve, IMAP, dsync) + Nextcloud(Calender, Contacts) works for me for month without looking. (Be on the announce mailing lists for security informations.) PS, don't sneak through you kids thoughts. Not even by "only" scanning for "troubling words".
