Setup Miab on IPv6 4G Mobile ISP

Help with Setup/Upgrade
1

I first installed Ubuntu 22.04 LTS on my Asus eee PC netbook that has 1GB RAM and a 250GB hard disk drive.

After the installation of the OS completed, I decided to note I have one private IPv4, one public IPv4 (which is really the IPv4 address of the ISP’s NAT router), and one public IPv6 address (which is my gateway to the Internet).

I do love Miab as it is the only solution that comes with built-in custom DNS and I have my very own custom IPv6 DNS server and I can host any domain.

I can receive email from any IPv6 address.

I wanted to test Miab, so I went to ICANN website and opted to sign up for an account, so I can receive my first verification email from ICANN, and yes, ICANN supports IPv6 and I received the verification email in my IPv6 mail server powered by Miab.

However, this discourse forum does not support IPv6 and I would like to advise Joshua Tauberer (JoshData) to change to a better cloud hosting provider that supports IPv6 instead of Rimu Hosting. Many of us try to sign up for account with this discourse forum but do not get the verification email :slight_smile: Please kindly fix this problem by changing to a cloud hosting provider that supports IPv6.

However, there is a small bug as Miab prefers IPv4 or IPv6 and if I try to send email it uses my NATed IPv4 IP address (detected as Public IPv4 address but it is not), which is in Spamhaus Policy Black List (PBL). My Public IPv6 address is NOT in any Spam Haus Black List, especially the famous PBL.

I suggest Miab developers, especially JoshData can opt to prefer IPv6 over IPv4 in future versions.

I look forward to hear from you.

2

@07032024 You can edit the postfix config file to prefer Ipv6 capable servers like this:
sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

insert these lines at the top to always prefer IPv6 capable servers:

#copy from here >>>>>>
smtp_address_preference = ipv6
smtp_balance_inet_protocols = no
#this may produce some delays if IPV6 is down and there are available IPV4 servers for the destination
smtp_mx_address_limit = 0
#this tells postfix when there is a mix of Ipv4 and Ipv6 recipients (when sending CC messages to different domains) not to default to 5 servers (since it starts with the IPv4) but explore all available servers for the different domains
inet_protocols = all
#careful if you change this to Ipv6 or Ipv4 it will work only with either
#>>>> end copy here

Save and exit
Then restart postfix with:

sudo systemctl restart postfix

and send yourself a message on gmail. Open the message in gmail’s webmail click show original: inspect the SPF header. it should PASS with the IPV6 address.

This only works with Gmail, Yandex and GMX mail and one other I forgot. Outlook,Live,Msn,Hotmail, icloud, mail.me, yahoo, aol and all the other freemail crap will fail on Ipv6. Microsoft 365 own domain hosted emails seem to accept IPv6 and will connect with your MIAB ipv6 enabled server via Ipv6.

Reverse DNS, SPF/DKIM/DMARC must be configured correctly for IPV6 unless you want all your IPv6 mail to end up in their Junk folder as they don’t have any spam filtering rules on IPV6. MIAB admin panel will warn you if reverse DNS is not set for the Ipv6.

IPv6-only sending is unrealistic at present since Ipv4 is used by the freemail giants to filter spam.

2 Likes
3

Wow, surprised that your setup works at all.

Um I feel like you are being slightly disrespectful here.

For mail to work properly you need IPv4 - period at least right now anyways.

Perhaps you should consider moving your mail sever to a IPv6 (and IPv4) VPS provider rather than giving directives for Josh to do something.

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I noted your comment to my public post on the Mail-in-a-box discourse forum. This is my reply to you.

Wow, surprised that your setup works at all.

The setup is actually very easy as Mail-in-a-box is installed using just one command. Joshua Tauberer made the process very easy through the scripts he wrote. I love the automatic DNS wizard that makes me my own DNS hosting provider like Cloudflare.

Um I feel like you are being slightly disrespectful here.

I do not think I am “disrespectful” as Joshua Tauberer has not publicly scolded me or issued me a warning. I commented out of love and respect but then there are persons (besides Joshua) who may become offended as they think they are Joshua.

For mail to work properly you need IPv4 - period at least right now anyways.

I respectfully disagree with you. As IPV4 does not exist in many Asian countries and I need to use a NAT64 gateway to access many IPV4 websites hosted in USA. IPV6 replaces IPV4 and I believe IPV6 mail servers have lesser spam or wanted mail. Mail can also work using private IPs (regardless private IPV4 like 192.168.xxx.xxx or private IPV6 like fe80::/10) or on Tor network or I2p network. I advise you to check out TorBox Email, which uses Mail-in-a-box to create a private Tor only Email system.

Perhaps you should consider moving your mail sever to a IPv6 (and IPv4) VPS
provider rather than giving directives for Josh to do something.

I prefer to stay on IPV6 as I get a /64 but my IPV4 connectivity is CGNATed. I made the suggestion to JoshData AKA Joshua Tauberer with good intention that he can change. I look forward to hear Joshua’s reply but at the moment he has yet to reply. Joshua speaks about decentralisation and the best way to practise decentralisation is to use IPV6, which is available to every home user without the need to rent a VPS from a centralised cloud hosting provider.

5

In Europe and the US, more and more residential connections no longer have public IPv4 addresses as well, respectively they have IPv4 behind CGNAT, which by the way has been the norm for mobile connections for a long time.

In the context of email, however, this doesn’t matter because home or mobile connections have never been suitable for running an email server, even with public IPv4 addresses, because these addresses are usually dynamic, which means that reverse DNS is not possible, which in turn means that your emails will be blocked by most email providers. Also, many residential IP ranges are on block lists by default, so even if you can get a static IPv4, you can’t be sure that your emails won’t be blocked.

Yes, you can get around this by setting up an IPv6 only mail server, but this is not really feasible for other reasons. One very simple reason is that there are still many IPv4 only email servers out there, and even some large providers have not yet managed to establish dual stack worldwide.

So, as of March 2024, an IPv6 only mail server will still not be able to communicate with a significant portion of the email servers on the Internet, simple as that.

2 Likes
6

In Europe and the US, more and more residential connections no longer have
public IPv4 addresses as well, respectively they have IPv4 behind CGNAT, which
by the way has been the norm for mobile connections for a long time.

This is why IPV4 is no longer a viable method to communicate. Each of us as users have to try to promote IPV6, even if we have a public dynamic IPV6 prefix. Receiving emails will not be a problem on a dynamic IP without reverse DNS. However, sending emails, I use GMAIL or OUTLOOK, which provide free SMTP that delivers to IPV6. The Discourse Mailinabox web server and mail server is not IPV6 compliant unfortunately.

In the context of email, however, this doesn’t matter because home or mobile
connections have never been suitable for running an email server, even with
public IPv4 addresses, because these addresses are usually dynamic, which
means that reverse DNS is not possible, which in turn means that your emails will
be blocked by most email providers. Also, many residential IP ranges are on block
lists by default, so even if you can get a static IPv4, you can’t be sure that your
emails won’t be blocked.

Of course, I do not recommend sending email from a dynamic IPv6 address with no reverse DNS. This is because of issue of mail delivery. I only recommend receiving email on dynamic IPv6 addresses without reverse DNS. As for sending email, a smart host, such as GMAIL, OUTLOOK, YAHOO or MIGADU must be used to guarantee delivery.

Yes, you can get around this by setting up an IPv6 only mail server, but this is not
really feasible for other reasons. One very simple reason is that there are still
many IPv4 only email servers out there, and even some large providers have not
yet managed to establish dual stack worldwide.

The reason for this problem is political as the management of these big corporations is fascist and do not care about the human being. One thing, each of us can do is speak out. I recently spoke to NO-IP management that their website and email is not IPV6 compatible and even their Dynamic DNS solution is NOT IPV6 compatible! Their customer support personnel told me they are aware but they do not know when their management will approve the change. I told the NO-IP management if they do not then I have no choice but not do do business with them. At least, I can still update my DNS manually or I could use dynv6 or cloudflare. I will never do business with a person who is IPV4 only.

So, as of March 2024, an IPv6 only mail server will still not be able to
communicate with a significant portion of the email servers on the Internet, simple
as that.

While it may be true an IPV6 only mail server may not be able to communicate with vast majority of IPV4 only mail servers but I plan to change this by giving out free IPV6 only email addresses through a service that is powered by Mail In A Box.

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