VPS Setup

Introduction

After years of thinking about it I finally took the plunge and configured my own email and web server. When I first considered it, I viewed it as a geeky rite of passage and I thought redirecting my own email domain to e.g. Google mail servers would be good enough.

The Snowden leaks made me seriously rethink the importance and scope of this project. I am not paranoid enough to think I could be considered a target worthy of snooping, however, as Ken White eloquently puts it, “I am the other”.

This guide describes the process I went through, in a way that is hopefully clear enough to be reproducible by like-minded individuals. A basic grasp of UNIX command line is assumed. Path and domain name information where copied verbatim from my own setup and will need to be adapted. I tried to strike a balance between accessibility and concision but I expect it can be improved. Comments are welcome.

Although I opted to use a VPS because I was traveling too much and didn’t have a good enough network connection at home, all the instructions below should work perfectly with a dedicated server.