dovecot - Oct 2020 - Looking for a guide to collect all e-mail from the ISP mail server

> I too would strongly advise you to use Google Workspace (the recent 
new name for G Suite, previously known as Google Apps). 
 > It's cheap, very reliable, and has all features you can dream of, 
including an autoresponder.
 >  It's unrealistic to think that it's possible to beat a service
that
costs a mere USD 6 / user / month (and is free for nonprofits!).

I would not advice any company that is continuously being fined for 
breaking the law.

>> I too would strongly advise you to use Google Workspace (the recent new
>> name for G Suite, previously known as Google Apps). It's cheap,
very
>> reliable, and has all features you can dream of, including an 
>> autoresponder. It's unrealistic to think that it's possible to
beat a
>> service that costs a mere USD 6 / user / month (and is free for 
>> nonprofits!).
>
> I would not advice any company that is continuously being fined for 
> breaking the law.
>
This is not only an overstatement, it is completely irrelevant.  Given the 
OP problem statement (small business, part-time admin, newbie to mail 
servers), I do not think there is a better solution.  A small server 
already costs 20 USD / month, running a mail server consumes a significant 
amount of resources, and as the OP mentions running a mail server also 
represents a high security risk.

>> I would not advice any company that is continuously being fined for
breaking the law.
> This is not only an overstatement, it is completely irrelevant.? Given the
OP problem
> statement (small business, part-time admin, newbie to mail 
> servers), I do not think there is a better solution
> A small server already costs 20 USD / month, running a mail server consumes
a significant amount
> of resources, and as the OP mentions running a mail server also represents
a high security risk.

Guys, this kind of advice is not helping me either.

First of all, I want to learn how to do it, just for fun. Even if paying for a
hosted solution is an economically better solution. It's not for me to
decide anyway.

I will not recommend Google. Ever heard of data protection and data
confidentiality? And then you are completely dependent. Your are nothing for a
huge company like Google. If they lose your complete e-mail database, they will
tell you that they are awfully sorry. If at all.

And no, running a mail server does not "consume a significant amount of
resources". Any 10-year-old laptop can easily cater for a small business.

Besides, paying $6/user/month is actually very expensive for some small
organisations. If you have 20 volunteers coming to the help in a small public
library once a month, that would be $1440 a year just for e-mail services. Most
such people would continue to use private Hotmail addresses. I would
rather install a Synology NAS and use whatever e-mail service it comes with it.

An on-premise mail server is, and should be, virtually free, at least for a
basic e-mail service. No need for cloud. No need to expose any ports. No
need to configure the firewall. No need to ask anything from your ISP.

I have seen it running like that on existing small businesses with Microsoft
Exchange and the POP Connector. It is just that Microsoft wants you to
pay a subscription now, probably because the old licence fees are way cheaper
than $6/user/month.

If Linus had been reading this mailing list, we would all be paying lawyers to
contract professional Sun/Oracle consultants to run our software on
certified Solaris servers!

Regards,
   rdiez