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#0
Learn Mailserver - Prerequisite Skills & Environment Setup
The opening episode of the Learn Mailserver series: the essential skills you must master before touching Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube, the VPS specs and domain you need to prepare, and verifying your environment through the CLI before you start installing any components.
August 3, 2026
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#1
Learn Mailserver - History, Background & Why You Need It
Tracing the history of email from SMTP RFC 821 (1982) to ESMTP RFC 5321 (2008), the birth of Postfix by Wietse Venema, Dovecot, and Roundcube, the problems they solve, and the deliverability challenges you'll face in the modern era.
August 3, 2026
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#2
Learn Mailserver - Core Concepts & Main Architecture
Mapping the end-to-end email architecture: the roles of MUA, MTA, MDA, and the mailbox server, how messages flow from sender to recipient, the ports and protocols involved, and where Postfix, Dovecot, and Roundcube stand within that flow.
August 3, 2026
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#3
Learn Mailserver - Postfix Installation & Basic Configuration
The real first step: installing Postfix, understanding the anatomy of main.cf, getting to know key parameters like myhostname, myorigin, mydestination, mynetworks, inet_interfaces, and relayhost, then running and verifying the service via postconf, postfix check, and postfix reload.
August 3, 2026
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#4
Learn Mailserver - Dovecot Installation & Basic Configuration
Installing Dovecot as the IMAP/POP3 server and MDA: installing the dovecot-imapd, dovecot-pop3d, and dovecot-lmtpd packages, understanding the configuration structure in /etc/dovecot, basic parameters like protocols, listen, mail_location, and auth_mechanisms, plus verification via doveconf -n.
August 3, 2026
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#5
Learn Mailserver - DNS: MX, SPF, DKIM & DMARC
The four DNS records that decide your email's fate: MX for the reception route, SPF for the domains allowed to send, DKIM for cryptographic signatures, and DMARC for the policy when authentication fails, complete with verification using dig and online tools.
August 3, 2026
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#6
Learn Mailserver - TLS: Postfix, Dovecot & Certificates
Securing every email path with TLS: obtaining Let's Encrypt certificates via certbot, configuring smtpd_tls_cert_file and smtpd_tls_key_file in Postfix, ssl_cert and ssl_key in Dovecot, enforcing TLS on submission and IMAP, plus auto-renewing certificates so they never expire.
August 3, 2026
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#7
Learn Mailserver - Virtual Users & Database Backend
Replacing system users with database-backed virtual mailboxes: the multi-domain concept, the virtual_domains, virtual_users, and virtual_aliases table structure in MariaDB, configuring virtual_mailbox_domains and virtual_mailbox_maps in Postfix, and passdb and userdb SQL in Dovecot.
August 3, 2026
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#8
Learn Mailserver - Roundcube: Install & Configure Webmail
Installing the mail server's front end: preparing PHP-FPM and Nginx, downloading Roundcube, placing it in public_html, installing via the web installer, configuring config.inc.php for imap_host, smtp_host, and db_dsnw, then securing the installation by removing the installer folder.
August 3, 2026
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#9
Learn Mailserver - Mailbox, Maildir & LMTP Delivery
Dissecting where email lives: the difference between mbox and Maildir, the anatomy of the cur, new, and tmp directories, configuring mail_location in Dovecot, then connecting Postfix to LMTP via virtual_transport so every message is delivered correctly to the mailbox.
August 3, 2026
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