Instead of simply discarding incoming phishing emails from APT actors, I decided to make sure it was loud and clear in mail logs that I discarded them - with attribution.
All in The Network
Network Updates
Everything on the network is finally done. Oh who am I kidding? Things change constantly between software and hardware updates and upgrades. This just documents a small part of it.
Tracking Advanced Port Scanning
I’ve noticed ports scans. A lot of them. However these are different, these are all scans from a seemingly distributed scanning network spread out over multiple IP addresses.
Fail2ban for Sendmail AUTH
Mail server admins always notice when spammers try to use an AUTH command to try to relay spam through a mail server. But when they start hammering away with a much more sophisticated botnet, things start to get serious - especially for the paranoid.
Network Review 2025
Unsurprisingly to other techies my server rack has changed over the past year and few months. Warning, nerd territory ahead.
Server Upgrades
Upgrading the operating system of a server can be easy, and it can be painful. I upgraded four of them, and as only three had issues, I consider myself lucky. Nonetheless, this wasn't easy.
MTA-STS: Why and How I Did It
I closed a security hole on my mail server. Granted, one could barely see the hole, and the chances of compromise are quite low, but everything counts. Right? Right?
Installing Wireguard
There are a lot of decent tutorials online about Wireguard setup. I’m not claiming this is one of them, but this is about a real world implementation.
Why I Self Host
Not everyone self hosts, but I do. I get asked a lot as to why, so I’ll try and answer. Spoiler, I’m paranoid and a nerd.
My Pi-hole Rabbit Hole
Running Pi-hole in recursive mode has a lot of benefits - especially if you run your own mail server.
Network Revamp 2023
To save on server room space as well as power consumption, I migrated three tower systems to Intel NUCs and rack mounted them. Here’s why.
The Mastodon Migration
It went perfectly smooth, until it didn’t. Full instructions on migrating a Mastodon instance to new hardware, including a few of my mistakes so you can learn from them.
Cleaning Up The Rack
The new rack looks great. You should have seen the old one…
Mastodon and Self-Hosting
Hosting your own Mastodon instance isn’t for everyone, but if you decide to do it, it’s probably easier than you think.
Locking Down Accounts
If you set up SSH on a server, you should also lock it down.
Daemon
To properly run a mail server, you need your DNS in order. This is my over-the-top method to do just that.
Talon
There are reasons I run my own mail server, they may seem paranoid but they are not. Well. not too paranoid...