Leaving Google

I have to abandon keeping Wildsong.biz on Google Mail because over the years Google evolved the service offering from being just email to being a "suite" of tools that I don't need or want, and then finally used the "suite" as a justification for it to be a for-pay only service. All that's fair, but I am not motivated to pay for the suite when all I need is email.

I still like their spam protection and the search features. I will move elsewhere later but for now I just want to forward mail to new gmail addresses.

1. Set up new gmail accounts
2. Forward from existing wildsong accounts to new gmail accounts
3. Set up email forwarder for wildsong.biz
4. Move devices (phones and tablets) to new address
5. Move old email to new gmail account.

I think I am going to use my VPS at Tektonic.net as the SMTP server (for now at least) since I already have an account that I have to keep going there.

DNS settings

SMTP authentication - so I can forward mail from Google (and my own servers). https://www.bluehost.com/help/article/email-client-enable-smtp-authentication

My standard TXT record for email, V=SPF1 +A +MX -ALL

Server: mail.DOMAINNAME
Port: 465 with SSL

TLS Certificate

SMTP: Postfix

I am more comfortable working with Postfix, so out goes Exim4.

apt remove exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light 
apt install postfix postgrey 

Filtering -

• Postgrey
• Spamassasin
• ClamAV

IMAP - Dovecot

I am inclined to install dovecot, mysql, and elastic search in Docker containers Docker based installations are so clean and flexible.

Forward mail from one gmail account to another

[email protected] -> [email protected]

Move mail from one gmail account to another

Google uses POP3 to transfer mail between accounts. Strangely Google does not allow Google to import mail from Google. In the old account you have to allow "less secure" apps and do a captcha thing. The process is not documented by Google, it's described in a community posting.

Google's process to describe transferring mail is described by a user, not by Google. Whatever.