Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for personal use?

Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for pe... by teddyh on Saturday August 13, 2016 @08:30PM (#12283755)

Bounce? No. The servers trying to send mail to your server will retry for up to, typically, four or five days, before they bounce the mail back to the sender.

Mail was written to be resilient against network downtime.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for pe... by robertely on Sunday August 14, 2016 @12:34AM (#12284275)

That's why you soft bounce. It tells the sender that you can't receive the email _at this time_.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for pe... by philtar on Sunday August 14, 2016 @04:37AM (#12284805)

Pretty sure you can't do anything when you're not connected to the internet.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for pe... by sbierwagen on Sunday August 14, 2016 @03:20PM (#12286892)

A connection timeout is a soft bounce.

https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5321#section-4.5.4.1

   The sender MUST delay retrying a particular destination after one
   attempt has failed.  In general, the retry interval SHOULD be at
   least 30 minutes; however, more sophisticated and variable strategies
   will be beneficial when the SMTP client can determine the reason for
   non-delivery.

   Retries continue until the message is transmitted or the sender gives
   up; the give-up time generally needs to be at least 4-5 days.  It MAY
   be appropriate to set a shorter maximum number of retries for non-
   delivery notifications and equivalent error messages than for
   standard messages.  The parameters to the retry algorithm MUST be
   configurable.

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Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for pe... by bigp3t3 on Sunday August 14, 2016 @09:12AM (#12285443)

That's why sending mta's should resend. Think sendmail does this every few hours or so

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Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for pe... by OJFord on Sunday August 14, 2016 @01:32PM (#12286458)

Ha, I wrote that so cautiously, thinking "I'm sure this terminology's not right, I'll probably be called out on it"!

Thanks though, I learned something :)

Regardless of what we call it - the sender would get a copy back with a message not containing the word 'bounce' that says it failed to send, right?

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Re:Ask HN: Is it possible to run your own mail server for pe... by teddyh on Monday August 15, 2016 @03:49AM (#12289206)

No, no message will be sent until after 4-5 days have passed without connection.

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