Can I use my web server as mail server?

Question

I have a dedicated Linux web server where my website is running like www.example.com. Now I want to start another service for my users and want to give mailing features like Gmail and Yahoo mail. I want to give facility to my users to create email IDs as they create on Gmail or Yahoo Mail and use it as their email address like [email protected] or [email protected]. Is this possible for me to use my dedicated web server as mail server too, or I need to hire a new specific mail server for this purpose.

Also, if I can use my server as mail server and can give IMAP and POP like features then what are the PROs and CONs in that?

My hosting company says that I have facility to create unlimited email addresses and I have created a few for mt like [email protected] and [email protected] and I am getting emails on these IDs.

Is that mean, my hosting already have setup a mail server for me (the same I mentioned in my question and want to setup) Or this is just for me to use and manage my website and I can not share these email addresses with my users by giving an email service.

Answer 1

Yes you can run simultaneously a web and mail server. Follow part 3 of this guide: http://mysql-apache-php.com/ to set up email. Just make sure that your router is fully capable (supports NAT etc.) - it should be able anyway

However it does appear from your question that your hosting company has set up its own mail server. Which does mean unlimited emails, however the only issue could be the amount of space they are willing to host for you (As in you can only have 2 GB of space on their mail server). Hope this helps.