SMTP Relay with Web Dashboard | Hacker News Reader

SMTP Relay with Web Dashboard

github.com

42 pointstoinbox12 comments

What does this bring compared to apt-get install-ing an established mail server like procmail or exim and configuring it to work as a relay for the local LAN?

setup wizard and web UI

Offering a UI to quickly set it up.

Reading through exim docs has taken hours of my life and it still caused weird issues. Using software that works for setting up a multinational email server to make your homelab send messages to Gmail is a massive time sink and kind of ridiculous really.

I haven't tested the code myself, but I'd prefer a simple system with limitations over a complex system that can be configured for simple tasks.

I think dma (https://github.com/corecode/dma) would work for this purpose and has a much easier config than exim.

For this very simple relay, there are lightweight alternative like msmtp.

https://packages.debian.org/trixie/msmtp

I haven’t had a chance to play with this yet, but my curiosity is piqued.

Why PostgreSQL instead of SQLite?

There is an opportunity to BCC all messages on the way through to create an Archive of mail that has left the system.

Can this match outbound mails FROM and/or local SMTP-AUTH to a specific Mail Provider Account? ie - Can I have 5 Office 365 accounts as separate mail providers that each handle different mail based on the mail’s origin parameters?

Would you consider an ordered full matrix conditional map of which outbound account should be used: Local-SMTP-User, From Regex, To Regex? I’ve got a need to send specific Mail “RCPT TO” via Google Workspace for deliverability reasons, while I’d like all other Mail to go out my main provider.

I guess what I’m sharing is… if you have interest in making this a feature rich tool, I have a complex Smart Host configuration I’d be willing to move here as a test.

Okay... so I started playing with the tool.

There is currently a 1:1 relationship between a client and a provider. I think this should greatly be decoupled. I'd replace clients with "first match wins" mail routes.

Looks nice but does it support "oauth2" authentication for the final smtp server that will be used?

It is a need because it is a cancer that propagated to all big mail domain providers like gmail and microsoft 365. They are supposed to be business tools and still it is almost impossible to setup "device" email accounts that would identify just with credentials or equivalent without having to use a "web browser".

I couldn't think of a use case for something this. For anyone else like me, the readme outlines one near the bottom which seems genuinely nice:

Set this up, allow no-auth sending from any address on your LAN, and then spinning up new local services that need outgoing mail is easy, because you can just give them the IP of the relay and omit credentials.

At acme corp we used to spoof bonus emails from management through the smtp relay. Good times. Not so good security.

Exactly - the homelab case is the most common one. Instead of putting Gmail app passwords into 10 different devices, you configure it once in SimpleRelay and point everything at one endpoint.

I am still setting it up, but I've seen Mailrise and Apprise that essentially achieves this.

The nice thing about Apprise is that it can direct notifications to various places, not just another email server.

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