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How to run your own mail server (2017)

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Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#31

Post by derrick_jensen »

q3k wrote: post #6
benbristow wrote: post #3

Alternatively pay for a GSuite account for like £3 a month (Or Office 365) and all of this is handled for you with superior spam filtering, search, webmail, no manual administration and no issues with email delivery due to other filters thinking your server is a bit dodgy. It's too much effort to run your own email server well.

Of even better, use some smaller alternative that is not Google (mailbox.org, protonmail, fastmail, ...). GMail's de-facto monopoly on email (and especially spam filtering) is a threat to the Internet.

I'd recommend Rackspace. $3 per user per month, and allowed me to bring my own domain. Haven't had any issues after setting everything up.

I tried registering this domain through G Suite and Zoho first, but they both said my domain had a TLD that's commonly used by spammers, and refused to bind it. Zoho eventually made an exception but took over a week for them to get back to me.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#32

Post by starbugs »

Naac wrote: post #15

A ( somewhat ) happy medium between hosting your own email ( and dealing with getting IP blocked ) and fully entrusting youtself to Google is to use webmail as provided by your domain name registrar. For example, gandi.net provides web mail on your own domain. Even, better, it has support for wildcard email just like google does.

gandi.net doesn't support external domains. I'd be thankful for any recommendations that aren't totally overpriced and allow for external domains.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#34

Post by ryandrake »

dpcan wrote: post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

Sample size of one but I’ve run my own mail server for years and have almost never encountered problems of this nature.

Right when I started with the VPS, rejections from Comcast started showing up in my logs, and I traced it back to the IP I got being in some blacklist. Requested a new IP and it has been smooth sailing ever since.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#35

Post by Spivak »

dpcan wrote: post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

There is no secret, because if there was then it would be used by spammers and then cease to work.

And if there was a secret to building a reputation you could make a lot more money as a brand consultant with it than running an email server.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#36

Post by xiaomai »

curiousfab wrote: post #28
dpcan wrote: post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

For some reason I never had problems, even after a recent change of my IP address because I moved to a new VPS. Hetzner VPS, proper reverse DNS, SPF, that's all, not even DKIM. The only big ISP that doesn't like my mails is AT&T and I couldn't care less (in Europe, rarely have to deal with people @att.net).

I also have no issues like this (I do SPF/DMARC but not DKIM)

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#37

Post by q3k »

derrick_jensen wrote: post #31
q3k wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of even better, use some smaller alternative that is not Google (mailbox.org, protonmail, fastmail, ...). GMail's de-facto monopoly on email (and especially spam filtering) is a threat to the Internet.

I'd recommend Rackspace. $3 per user per month, and allowed me to bring my own domain. Haven't had any issues after setting everything up. I tried registering this domain through G Suite and Zoho first, but they both said my domain had a TLD that's commonly used by spammers, and refused to bind it. Zoho eventually made an exception but took over a week for them to get back to me.

Huh, that's the first time I hear of rejection due to a TLD. What is it?

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#38

Post by benbristow »

curiousgal wrote: post #16
benbristow wrote: post #3

Alternatively pay for a GSuite account for like £3 a month (Or Office 365) and all of this is handled for you with superior spam filtering, search, webmail, no manual administration and no issues with email delivery due to other filters thinking your server is a bit dodgy. It's too much effort to run your own email server well.

Gsuite is at $6 per month.

I pay about £3.50 or so.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#39

Post by ransom1538 »

dpcan wrote: post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

Yes. After many years, I think the algorithm is this:

If the FROMs top level domain is in the top 500 websites OR is a .edu NOT SPAM, ELSE, send to "proprietary spam filter". The "proprietary spam filter" is some random crap code that is unique to each email server company. You could spend years trying to figure out how to game "proprietary spam filter" - but it is a fools errand.

Re: How to run your own mail server (2017)

#40

Post by mgalgs »

wpietri wrote: post #30
dpcan wrote: post #22

Then you realize the true pain of having a near-zero reputation when trying to email anything to people on Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc, etc. Expect to go to spam even if you have DKIM, SPF, and no relaying. If anyone actually knows the secret to not having your own mail-server's mail go to spam on these bigger systems, please tell, I've Googled it for years with no success.

Agreed! I've been running my own mail server for 20+ years, and I would not recommend that anybody do this on a lark. Deliverability to GMail is a huge problem for me and has been for years. I even asked friends at Google to find out what the story was. All I got back is that the mail group was so careful/paranoid it wouldn't talk to them either. I would long ago have switched over to a vendor, but I use qmail-style…

Curious why you're so attached to the qmail style subaddressing. Personal preference or is there a technical advantage?
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