John Lai   [RSS Feed]

I set up my own LAMP VPS on linode.com.  Although linode provides a good guide on how to set up the LAMP environment, it doesn’t explain how to enable the PHP mail() function.  Additionally, it doesn’t explain how to prevent the server’s outgoing mail from ending up in the spam folder of popular web mail like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.  I’ll explain my steps to getting PHP’s mail() function to work, without having to install a full blown mail server.  This means the bare minimum installation to get your PHP mail function to do the following:

- send out-going mail
- encrypt out-going mail
- reduce likelihood out-going mail ends up in spam folder

I’m not interested in hosting my own incoming mail box since I’ve got Google Apps to handle my mail (see linode guide for details).

Install Postfix

Postfix will be your mail server.  Install it by simply typing into shell:

sudo apt-get install postfix

Install TLS Encryption

You’d want to encrypt your outgoing mail.  Issue the following commands (this is an excerpt from ubuntu site):

touch smtpd.key
chmod 600 smtpd.key
openssl genrsa 1024 > smtpd.key
openssl req -new -key smtpd.key -x509 -days 3650 -out smtpd.crt # has prompts
openssl req -new -x509 -extensions v3_ca -keyout cakey.pem -out cacert.pem -days 3650 # has prompts
sudo mv smtpd.key /etc/ssl/private/
sudo mv smtpd.crt /etc/ssl/certs/
sudo mv cakey.pem /etc/ssl/private/
sudo mv cacert.pem /etc/ssl/certs/
sudo postconf -e 'smtp_tls_security_level = may'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_security_level = may'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_auth_only = no'
sudo postconf -e 'smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/smtpd.key'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/smtpd.crt'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/cacert.pem'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_received_header = yes'
sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_session_cache_timeout = 3600s'
sudo postconf -e 'tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom'
sudo postconf -e 'myhostname = server1.example.com' # remember to change this to yours

In the last command, make sure you replace server1.example.com with your domain name.

If you have multiple domain names, add them to /etc/postfix/main.cf under

mydestination = domain1.com, domain2.com, domain3.com

Install SPF

Installing SPF will reduce the likelihood your emails go to recipient’s spam folder.

sudo apt-get install python-policyd-spf python-spf

Add this line to the end of /etc/postfix/main.cf

spf-policyd_time_limit = 3600s

Also add the following

smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
     ...
     permit_sasl_authenticated
     permit_mynetworks
     reject_unauth_destination
     check_policy_service unix:private/policy-spf
     ...

Where the triple dots denote the possible existence of other settings.

Now you should restart your postfix by typing

sudo /etc/init.d/postfix restart

Add the following TXT record in your DNS Manager to utilize SPF

v=spf1 a mx ~all

And that should be it.

Other useful resources:

Set up SPF Records

SPF, DKIM or SenderId?

Reverse DNS Lookup