Diagram of the self-hosted mail flow through postscreen, milters, Dovecot, direct delivery and webmail

Self-Hosted Email: Running My Own Mail Server Again

How I moved my domain’s email from a hosted provider to a self-hosted Postfix and Dovecot server in my home lab, the design choices behind it, and what I learned along the way.

October 1, 2026 · Updated October 14, 2026 · 7 min · Roland Hill
Terminal showing a customised Mutt configuration

A Clean, Modular Mutt Setup with Account and Theme Switching

A modular Mutt configuration: per-account switching, msmtp for sending, and colour themes you can swap without touching the core config.

February 22, 2026 · Updated October 14, 2026 · 2 min · Roland Hill
Diagram of mail clients connecting to OpenLDAP over LDAPS, trusted by a private root CA

Building a Private LDAP Address Book with OpenLDAP

A private OpenLDAP address book secured with LDAPS, providing centralised contact lookup for Mutt and Thunderbird on a LAN.

February 22, 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026 · 3 min · Roland Hill
Diagram of workstations relaying mail through a Postfix smart host to an upstream provider

Mail Relay at Home: Postfix Smart Host

How to build a reliable home mail relay using Postfix as a smart host with msmtp clients on Linux workstations, enabling sendmail-compatible outbound email for scripts and system alerts.

February 19, 2026 · Updated October 4, 2026 · 5 min · Roland Hill