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Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

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Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#11

Post by viraptor »

jack9 wrote: post #7
mr_blobs wrote: post #2

I setup my own mail server last year and shortly gave up on the idea. Setting the server up isn't the problem. The problem is keeping your IP off of all the major blacklists. I wasn't even sending out mass emails and 30%+ of my email would never be delivered. I had to constantly check to see if my IP addresses were on the various spam lists (and fight to get my IPs off) and I just got tired of it. Companies like Goog…

I've been running a postfix for years (since 2008ish) and never once checked or worried about blacklists. My 3 users haven't reported any problems at all.

> never once checked or worried about blacklists. My 3 users haven't reported any problems at all.

What if they missed emails they never knew about in the first place? What if they tried to contact someone and just assumed they've been ignored? Unless you know you're not on blacklists, you should be worried at least a bit.

Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#12

Post by eikenberry »

mr_blobs wrote: post #2

I setup my own mail server last year and shortly gave up on the idea. Setting the server up isn't the problem. The problem is keeping your IP off of all the major blacklists. I wasn't even sending out mass emails and 30%+ of my email would never be delivered. I had to constantly check to see if my IP addresses were on the various spam lists (and fight to get my IPs off) and I just got tired of it. Companies like Goog…

Once you have SPF/DKIM in place and make sure your IP isn't already on a blacklist for some past (previous users) infractions you should be good to go. I've run my own mail server for years and have only had to remove it from a blacklist once. So once you get past some initial blacklist monitoring work, you are good to go.

That does bring up the point of how to do blacklist monitoring. There are various commercial services out there that will allow you to check for free and monitor 1 host or something (eg. https://mxtoolbox.com/). I'd prefer to run my own though, does anyone know of a good setup for this?

Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#13

Post by eikenberry »

viraptor wrote: post #10
voltagex_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

Gmail and other really big providers are in a unique position for spam filtering. They have so many users that they get a continuously trained filter pretty much for free. They can instantly classify never-seen-before kind of spam in minutes because someone gets push notification on their phone and clicks "this is spam". Nobody with purely-technical solution to this problem can be better in practice. (although we're…

This is a definite trade off. I have my personal mail server + a gmail account and gmail is better at spam prevention. It isn't that much better though as local Bayesian filters do very well.

Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#15

Post by bigiain »

eikenberry wrote: post #12
mr_blobs wrote: post #2

I setup my own mail server last year and shortly gave up on the idea. Setting the server up isn't the problem. The problem is keeping your IP off of all the major blacklists. I wasn't even sending out mass emails and 30%+ of my email would never be delivered. I had to constantly check to see if my IP addresses were on the various spam lists (and fight to get my IPs off) and I just got tired of it. Companies like Goog…

Once you have SPF/DKIM in place and make sure your IP isn't already on a blacklist for some past (previous users) infractions you should be good to go. I've run my own mail server for years and have only had to remove it from a blacklist once. So once you get past some initial blacklist monitoring work, you are good to go. That does bring up the point of how to do blacklist monitoring. There are various commercial se…

Question: where's your IP address come from? I'd have guessed that common cloud VM IP pools are likely all trashed permanently already? I somehow doubt AWS or DO or Linode or Rackspace et al are worthwhile places to host an outbound mail server? I'd also guess ISP pools of home IP addresses are probably just as poisoned. Is proper SPF/DKIM setup "enough" to overcome that? (Or are my suspicions about pools of IP addresses unfounded?)

Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#17

Post by eikenberry »

bigiain wrote: post #15
eikenberry wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have SPF/DKIM in place and make sure your IP isn't already on a blacklist for some past (previous users) infractions you should be good to go. I've run my own mail server for years and have only had to remove it from a blacklist once. So once you get past some initial blacklist monitoring work, you are good to go. That does bring up the point of how to do blacklist monitoring. There are various commercial se…

Question: where's your IP address come from? I'd have guessed that common cloud VM IP pools are likely all trashed permanently already? I somehow doubt AWS or DO or Linode or Rackspace et al are worthwhile places to host an outbound mail server? I'd also guess ISP pools of home IP addresses are probably just as poisoned. Is proper SPF/DKIM setup "enough" to overcome that? (Or are my suspicions about pools of IP addre…

Cloud providers are not as bad as you'd think. I've tested several DO IPs using various checkers, as I've been thinking about moving my server there (currently at prgmr.com), and they have all been clean. SPF and not being an open relay seem to be the 2 important things to keep you off the blacklists. I still don't have DKIM (been on my TODO for a while... but lazy) and haven't been put on a blacklist in many years.

Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#18

Post by eikenberry »

eikenberry wrote: post #12
mr_blobs wrote: post #2

I setup my own mail server last year and shortly gave up on the idea. Setting the server up isn't the problem. The problem is keeping your IP off of all the major blacklists. I wasn't even sending out mass emails and 30%+ of my email would never be delivered. I had to constantly check to see if my IP addresses were on the various spam lists (and fight to get my IPs off) and I just got tired of it. Companies like Goog…

Once you have SPF/DKIM in place and make sure your IP isn't already on a blacklist for some past (previous users) infractions you should be good to go. I've run my own mail server for years and have only had to remove it from a blacklist once. So once you get past some initial blacklist monitoring work, you are good to go. That does bring up the point of how to do blacklist monitoring. There are various commercial se…

Not something I can run, but http://www.mailradar.com/ seems like a better free service. They let you monitor 5 IPs for inclusion on blacklists which works better for a personal setup where you might have more than 1 domain but wouldn't have more than a couple VMs as the MX servers.

Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#19

Post by awinter-py »

mr_blobs wrote: post #2

I setup my own mail server last year and shortly gave up on the idea. Setting the server up isn't the problem. The problem is keeping your IP off of all the major blacklists. I wasn't even sending out mass emails and 30%+ of my email would never be delivered. I had to constantly check to see if my IP addresses were on the various spam lists (and fight to get my IPs off) and I just got tired of it. Companies like Goog…

I think you're mischaracterizing the promotions tab. When users interact with a web merchant, they're exchanging money for goods/services -- they're not signing up for spam. Hiding marketing email is a feature, not an evil plot.

It's not just G that differentiates between transactional email (a receipt) and bulk/marketing mail. Trans/bulk are so different that email companies consider these separate products (e.g. mailchimp vs mandrill).

Generalizing based on myself, I can guarantee that people really hate receiving crap. At least I can visually distinguish the G ads from my email and ignore them.

Re: Mail-in-a-Box – one-click, easy-to-deploy email server

#20

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

bigiain wrote: post #15
eikenberry wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you have SPF/DKIM in place and make sure your IP isn't already on a blacklist for some past (previous users) infractions you should be good to go. I've run my own mail server for years and have only had to remove it from a blacklist once. So once you get past some initial blacklist monitoring work, you are good to go. That does bring up the point of how to do blacklist monitoring. There are various commercial se…

Question: where's your IP address come from? I'd have guessed that common cloud VM IP pools are likely all trashed permanently already? I somehow doubt AWS or DO or Linode or Rackspace et al are worthwhile places to host an outbound mail server? I'd also guess ISP pools of home IP addresses are probably just as poisoned. Is proper SPF/DKIM setup "enough" to overcome that? (Or are my suspicions about pools of IP addre…

FWIW you can appeal to most major blocklists to have your IP address cleaned. I had no problem doing this for my own mail server.
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