Since long time I was looking for very small and  lightweight Email server for my lab, here I have hMailServer is to my rescue, it is very lightweight, opensource and free. It is just 4 MB of setup file, easy to setup and configure. Setup is available on https://www.hmailserver.com/, there is not much prerequisite require to install this setup, Just required to install is dot.net 2 and 3.5 beforehand, to install the dotnet you can found instructions on INSTALLING .NET 3.5 FRAMEWORKS ON WINDOWS SERVER 2012 R2. Once you launch the setup it asks for the few of the steps, selecting components, I am selecting all including server and administrative tools, Next for selecting database server type I am using the default one and using built-in database engine (Microsoft SQL Compact). On the hmailserver security, type the password and remember it, This is administration login password. On the last ready to install page, everything looks good and go with the installation.

Once hmail server is installed successfully, lunch the administration page, to connect, select the localhost and type the Administrator password to start hmailserver administration.

Click on the Domains and select Add button, then type your domain name, keep it enabled and save the configuration.

Next is crucial step of creating user accounts, expand domains and on the accounts, click Add button, and add addresses with passwords and save the settings.

Next setting is about disabling SMTP authentication when sending email, Why this option is best suited for my labs is I don't want everytime password to be prompted or emails send failing because of no authentication provided. Exapand Settings >> Advanced >> Ip Ranges >> Internet. On Internet uncheck all the check boxes under require SMTP authentication. and save the settings.

My email server is ready and it is time to test it now, Here I am using and installing opensource email client Thunderbird, It can be downloaded from https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/. Once it is installed, I will configure user accounts created earlier on hMailServer. On the Local folders, create a new account select Email. Next skip this and use existing email. It popups Mail Account Setup, type user name, Email address and password. Once it successfully connects to hmail servers and finds user accounts, Press done to add users.

It popups another warning message for Mail Account Setup, for Incoming and Outgoing settings, that imap and smtp does not use encryption. I am ok with it as it is lab setup, click I understand this risks and click Done.

For testing purpose I have added second users, and wrote some emails, sent it, as I see them in received and sent emails successfully.

Next test is sending email from Microsoft Powershell using below command and again test is successful as shown in ThunderBird mail.

Send-MailMessage -From [email protected] -To [email protected] -Subject PowerTest -Body PowershellTest -SmtpServer 192.168.34.11

Useful Articles
PART 1 : BUILDING AND BUYING GUIDE IDEAS FOR Vmware LAB
PART 2 : BUILDING AND HARDWARE BUYING GUIDE IDEAS FOR VMWARE LAB
PART 3 : MY VSPHERE LAB CONFIGURATION ON VMWARE WORKSTATION
PART 4 : CONFIGURING VMWARE WORKSTATION NETWORKING IN HOME LAB
PART 5 : CONFIGURING STORAGE IN VMWare WORKSTATION FOR OPTIMAL SPEED
PART 6 : CONFIGURE VMWARE WORKSTATION TO SAVE SSD SPACE AND TIME
PART 7 : CREATING NESTED VMWARE ESXI SERVER VM IN HOMELAB ON VMWARE WORKSTATION
PART 8 : CPU COOLING SOLUTION FOR MY HOME LAB ON VMWARE WORKSTATION