I set up Netbird with Nginx Proxy Manager to reach my self-hosted servers. But I can’t get it to configure Mailcow. Does anyone have an idea how I can make Mailcow work with Netbird and NPM?
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It should be easier to port forward SMTP to the mailcow installation for incoming mail and only use NPM for the web interface.
If netbird has enough DNS support you might be able to setup all the mailcow recommended settings there so you have auto discovery from mail-clients on the netbird VPN.
Incoming mail is pretty easy to get working anywhere, but outgoing is restricted if your IP adress is in any way suspicious. Using sendgrid, authsmtp, or something similar is the easy way.
For the hardcore, finding a VPS with a company that blocks outgoing smtp as default but will unblock if you convince them you’re responsible can be fun and/or frustrating. You’ll have a mail relay there for outgoing email at the minimum but can also get incoming email via that server. The smallest possible server should be enough.
Its not recommended to put Mailcow on a home network. You also need PTR set, witch you normally do at your vps hoster.
What’s wrong with it on a home network?
Sending email from home connections is extremely difficult because almost all providers blacklist home ISPs. You also need PTR to be accepted by Gmail. And with tunnels or VPN you most likely get network issues.
it used to run pretty well on one, but the lead dev made significant changes making it a bitch to run without doing it “his way”. What I ended having to do was change my nginx configuration so that I was using the one in his docker-compose directly as opposed to running my own that would point to his for mail related needs.
I forgot what exactly broke but when I reported that breakage I basically got told “tough shit, it works on my set up”, I don’t remember being demanding or impolite just reporting the issue and asking if he was aware of/had plans to fix it. Not too long after the product was acquired and I chalked it up to enshittification and shitty dev being a shitty dev.
TLDR; good luck and ymmv
