Even though I should know better, I don’t outsource my e-mail services. I pay for a cheap virtual private server from RimuHosting, and run Postfix with Courier IMAP. This is a lose if you have any e-mail addresses which receive spam, which by definition means a flood of spam. And I’ve got a couple of such addresses. Meanwhile, I’ve also got a CS PhD but was stymied in my attempts to stem the tide using stock open source tools.
GMail to the rescue. In addition to receiving messages on my VPS I just forward all of them to an account on Google’s mail servers. Then I just use IMAP to access GMail. This wins because:
- GMail’s spam filtering is really good
- I can use the Web frontend or Thunderbird
- If GMail goes down, I still have my old, spam overrun way of getting to my mail.