OT - email domain hosting and possible VPN

[David]

The time is getting closer for a reorganisation of our Internet infrastructure.

Historically we have used ISP email plus Hotmail and Gmail.

It would be good to be able to use our four registered domains for email; for example generating throw away email addresses for web sites and "tracking" email addresses unique to one site so you can see who is leaking to the spammers.

I know we can run an email server at home, but would prefer it to be out there in a hosting environment so we are not tied to one ISP.

It would also be good to be able to support a VPN; done at the moment at home on a Pi but again better out there.

Hosing a web site is not top of the list, but could be a future source of fun. Not having done one for years suggests that the future fun may be an optimistic view.

Any recommendations?

Trawling the web so far shows most offerings are targeted at a web site (possibly with Word Press) plus a new free single domain.

I want to support four existing domains with unlimited email addresses and if possible a VPN end point.

Cheers

Dave R

[Jethro_uk]

Is this a time to look ast Azure/AWS/GCloud ?

Havng researched cloud VM provision, it's the way of the future - security (Safe Harbor etc) and reliability dependent.

The issue is already creeping into budgeting. "Do we *really* need to spend £x which gives us 99.99999% availability, when we can spend £x/2 and get 99.999% availability ???"

At the moment, the vested interests have the upper hand, but their grasp is loosening.

[David]

Any pointers to a cloud server/service which could, for example, support a Linux VM with (reasonably) full ability to deploy any software?

That is, web server, mail server, VPN server?

I assume that Microsoft, Amazon and Google are the main suspects; any UK/ EU centric ones?

I must say that if I was a cloud VM provider I would be a bit wary of enthusiastic experimenters firing up unconstrained test VMs to see what could be done within my cloud.

Anyway; command line access (presumably SSH) at a minimum but a remote GUI would be good.

Secure FTP

VPN

Web Server

Mail server

Configuration tools/ control panel; I could (given time) configure a mail server but a simple GUI interface would be better.

This is where running your own VM gets complicated; the "service for idiots" approach is much less flexible but it doesn't require as much knowledge and experience.

I assume there would be an external firewall, but possibly internal (to the VM) firewall might also be required.

Hmmm......cheap, easy, dumb is sounding good.

Cheers

Dave R

[The Natural Philosopher]

Get yourself a VPS, install linux/exim/dovecot/apache/and build your own cloud.

only need about 128Mbyte RAM to run headless.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am on gigatux, but there are cheaper options out there

[Gordon Henderson]

If you have the savvy, then get a VPS (the old name for a "cloud" server) and do your own thing. Most providers will let you pick what OS you want on it - Linux (several flavours), or Windows.

I run my own, but am in the process of migrating to VPS type setup as the days of hosting your own server are more or less over for all but highly specialised stuff now. UK providers I'm using are: Portfast;

and Bytemark -

Of the 2, Portfast is the cheaper, but Bytemark may have slightly better online documentation. I'm using Bytemark for slightly more critical stuff and Portfast for bulk, less critical stuff. I also use Portfast for all my domains - and while I run my own DNS, they can do that for you as well as acting as the registrar.

The entry level is a tenner a month, give or take.

Gordon

[Nick]

A hosted email service for a domain is normally quite cheap. I have a few historical free Google Apps ones which are good, they now charge about £3 a month for each domain

Google Cloud also do a free trial 60 days. It have used this professionally it seems like a very easy way to run a hosted virtual machine.

What do you mean a VPN end point?