A Free and Easy Way to Host Email on Your VPS - iRedMail

Woops .. I think it's been far too long since I have last updated this blog, so apologies about that.
I thought it would be prudent to provide a simple and brilliant way to host and serve emails on your VPS. The advantage of the procedure i will be covering means it makes it easy to host websites on a VPS as well.
So, it is possible - and advised by many - to manually set up an email server, here's a quick list of one common and possible collections of applications you will need for an Ubuntu email server:

ipTables Tutorial | ipTables Ubuntu *Updated*

ipTables Tutorial

ipTables is definitely confusing to begin with, but for an unmanaged VPS server it is a completely necessary part. This ipTables tutorial will not necessarily be as in-depth as some which are available, simply as I don't know as much! However, I will link to any ipTables tutorial which I have used or I think is worthy of a read.

UPDATE: Automatically update your iptables with Spamhaus Drop List of Spam IPs

Ubuntu Change Hostname | Linux Change Hostname | Ubuntu Server Tips

Ubuntu Change Hostname

Not a necessity, but probably worth doing is the Ubuntu change hostname command. By default, an Ubuntu server will have a hostname which has probably been set by your unmanaged server host.

Server Security Tips | Update Ubuntu 10.04

Sever Security Tips: Update and Upgrade Ubuntu

The reason I chose to use Ubuntu 10.04 LTS support is due to the fact it has been out for a while, it is very secure, and there have been a number of updates which patch potential security holes.

OpenSSH Add User | Basic SSH Server Security

Basic SSH Server Security

Before I get going with installing new software on my Ubuntu unmanaged server, I want to look at some simple SSH server security in order to give some basic level protection to my server from the get-go.
So the first step for my SSH server security is to remove root access. This basically then means that anyone who wishes to log on to my server will need to know (or guess) the username.

Install Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on an Unmanaged Server

Installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on an unmanaged server

So installing Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on an unmanaged server is a pretty straight forward affair and although the process will differ between unmanaged VPS hosts, I am pretty confident in saying all you really need to do is select the Linux version you wish to install and hitting "install".

The Best unmanaged VPS | Cheapest unmanaged VPS

The best unmanaged VPS for you

So the first decision you need to make when setting up an unmanaged VPS is to select the best unmanaged VPS for you. This will need to be host who provides the system specifications you need at a price you think is right and that you can afford.