VesperNet History,
section MacDomain

E-Mail

Again, there is a nasty pile of RFCs on my desk, I have a rough idea of what I want to do. I want a mail service that is detached from the mainstream internet, and remember - this is still at a point where MacDomain precedes VesperNet.
I want to be able to use POP3 to fetch mail, I want to use SMTP to send mail. I want to be able to use any old E-Mail client to do so, and I want vanity domain names.

POP3
After crafting the base document layout of what an E-Mail should look like, I placed a few of these in the database with the first goal in mind, make it possible to fetch these with an E-Mail client. Let's skip the boring story, and bring out the TL;DR: Trial and error, got it working.

And boy, was there a lot of trial and error before I could actually authenticate properly using a vanity domain as the full username. This was later extended into a list of "valid" vanity domains, and made available via the MacDomain user dashboard for access requests. Yes, a user has to request a vanity domain.

SMTP
Fetching mail is a great success, now how about sending mail? I used the core document scheme for sending cute messages as well... this wasn't as straightforward as I had hoped, but then again, a challenge is a challenge.
If I can brag for a minute, I'm quite proud of the fact that my patience and persistence levels are high enough to get through quite a few challenges, but these RFC documents had me on the ropes for a while, and I had to take a break from it for a while lest I go completely insane and break something.

Ahem ... but eventually, I got it to a point where I could send mail properly using SMTP authentication using the full username (username@vanitydomain) and the password.
Along the way I came across a few more challenges, such as my ISP blocking port 25 and having to re-think and change how the SMTP server is launched to listen on the default port as well as an alternative port. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, first a working POP3 server, now a working SMTP server.

IMAP
No :)

So, then
I have a working E-Mail service, and thanks to Europa and Eric, I could even improve it further. I'm sure that both servers can be improved even further, but for now let me tell you about the features that are available as of right now, at this very precise moment

• completely contained environment, detached from the mainstream internet
• no mail is relayed out to the mainstream internet
• no mail is received from the mainstream internet
• fetch mail using (nearly) any E-Mail client
• send mail using (nearly) any E-Mail client
• one or more vanity domains can be used for your account name
• each vanity domain attached to your username becomes a separate mailbox
• POP3 authentication can be done with the full username (username@vanitydomain) and password
• POP3 authentication can be done with just the username and password, and becomes a catch-all for all vanity domains attached to the account
• SMTP authentication can be done with the full username (username@vanitydomain) and password
• SMTP authentication can be done with just the username and password
• SMTP authentication is not required for sending mail, but this method is not recommended - and requires IP whitelisting

What's next?
Well, I have been looking at IMAP, but I'm not sure I want to dive down that rabbit hole just yet, I wish to maintain at least a semblance of sanity. I have been looking at a few other things, such as a webmail client. A webmail options is available, offering the basic of basics required to send and receive mail, there is of course more work to be done here, but more about that in the Webmail subsection.

VesperNet Domain Change
While on the one hand, the mail server is accessible via its own domain on the mainstream internet, the domain used on VesperNet however becomes one.mail.com, with the webmail option being available via web.mail.com

Next subsection: Web Hosting