Help me to Setup VPS for Bulk Emailing

Hi,
I have 2 VPS servers with 1 GB ram and 100gb harddrive
1st VPS is running on CentOS 5
2nd VPS is running on Windows 2003
I am looking into bulk email segments of different websites but i am not able to find out an step by step process to setup these vps for bulk emailing needs.

I have done a little work with my linux vps i have installed virtualmin in it and setuped SMTP but i am also not sure how to setup domain with my VPS.

I know everyone is busy with their daily life but if someone can give me some time and help me in setting up these tasks, i will be thankful to him/her.

This is the starting of my first online business, and i am facing real difficulties, i hope you can understand

Thanks to all

What exactly you need help with?
The process is like this:

( assuming your VPS address space is 1.2.3.0/xx )

Register throwaway domain:
senderdomain.com


Setup DNS as normal:

senderdomain.com IN A 1.2.3.4
www.senderdomain.com IN A 1.2.3.4

Click to expand...

Add your mx records:

senderdomain.com IN MX mx.senderdomain.com
senderdomain.com IN MX mx2.senderdomain.com
senderdomain.com IN MX mx3.senderdomain.com

Click to expand...

..etc

Setup A records for the MX hostnames:

mx.senderdomain.com IN A 1.2.3.4
mx2.senderdomain.com IN A 1.2.3.5
mx3.senderdomain.com IN A 1.2.3.6

Click to expand...

..etc

Now you need - at least should also setup the reverse zones:

1.2.3.4 should resolve to mx.senderdomain.com
1.2.3.5 should resolve to mx2.senderdomain.com

Click to expand...

..etc

You obviously need some control over the address space used.
It's possible to go without proper reverse but it will drastically lower your inbox rate.

If you have no control over the reverse, go the other way:
Check 1.2.3.4. If it resolves to anything, like whatever.myvps.com, then change senderdomains MX addresses to whatever.myvps.com
The point is to make your mx records look legit.

Now you need to setup your box to rotete between outgoing IP addresses.
Simple way: use iptables.

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -m statistic --mode random --probability 0.5 -j SNAT --to-source 1.2.3.4
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -m statistic --mode random --probability 0.5 -j SNAT --to-source 1.2.3.5

Click to expand...

.. etc

This will take care of rotating outgoing addresses, no need to mess around with your smtp which may or may not support this.

So up to this point you have senderdomain.com properly setup, and outgoing addresses ready.

Now you just need to configure your smtp. I recommend postfix for it's simplicity.

1. add mx.senderdomain.com to /etc/mailname
2. edit /etc/postfix/main.cf
myhostname = mx.senderdomain.com
myorigin = /etc/mailname
mydestination = localhost, senderdomain.com, mx.senderdomain.com, mx2.senderdomain.com...etc
3. restart postfix
4. i repeat: restart postfix

Send some test mails to yourself, like echo "blah blah" | mail -s "subject" [email protected]
Check the email for spam score, ip addresses, check reverse again, etc
Now you notice you didn't restart postfix so do it.

Send some more and verify IP rotation is working.

Now you're ready to blast from the console with a while loop like while target=`cat targets.txt` do ... spam here .. done
Keep checking /var/log/mail.log ( tail -f /var/log/mail.log comes handy )
If you notice something like "greylisted" "temp banned", then immediately pull that ip and wait for cooldown.
Go slow at first to "warm up" the ip addresses then gradually speed up.
Try not to send to dead addresses using brand new address space. This is important.
You absolutely have to monitor your mail.log. If you only react when mails are bouncing it's too late, IPs are gone.
So keep that tail -f open all times or better have a script checking it.

If you have a desktop mailer then connect it to postfix.
Use a tcp connection forwarder that does not pass your IP over. No iptables. Use a forwarder like jumpgate.

jumpgate -l 25000 -r 25 -a 127.0.0.1

Click to expand...

Then setup your mailer to use 1.2.3.4 port 25000 as the smtp.
This way your "from ip" will show as it was sent from localhost, saving you from trouble/slow proxies.
All complaints will go to the abuse address of your address space. You should have control over that so you can take the heat longer.

Blast away

Basically that's it. Where are you stuck? What exactly you need help with?

"How to mail" is not that short or simple to write the whole thing in a forum post.
Please ask specific questions so ppl can actually help.

i came across this thread doing another search but had to add a couple things.

#1 - Process all hard bounces (emails no longer exists). You have to do this or you will absolutely fail. As soon as you continue sending dead emails from the same ip, you'll be blacklisted because that's what 90% of spammers do. Your suppression list is something you'll use forever. I personally use bouncehammer since I use a custom mailing script, but most noobs use interspire.

#2 - As mentioned above, don't send from port 25. Almost all vps providers monitor this port and will ban you quick as fuck.

#3 - I don't bother setting up rdns, dkim, or any other bullshit. Some of it is gonna bounce regardless. You're mail isn't anything special so get used to it. Unless you're mailing from returnpath verified ip's, you're going to hit spam so don't waste your time and money trying to hit the inbox. If you haven't been doing this for years you won't stand a chance getting your mail to hit the inbox on a regualr basis.

#4 - Disable or change the delay for the deferred queue in postfix and watch your server load. A high load will get your shit banned quicker than anything and 90% of the time it's because postfix is trying to remail the deferred queue with 100k mails in it. Think about it, if you're consuming all the cpu from the rest of the vps on that machine, those webmasters wil complain. The host will investigate and ban your shit every time.

#5 - Setup a master server with domain offshore to process bounces. Setup a master email on that server. Buy a couple cheap reseller accounts and addon a bunch of domains. Around 5 per reseller account so they're not all the same ip. Configure the default email address for each domain in cpanel so each domain defaults (forwards) to your master email on your main server. Use those domains as the from email([email protected]) when sending. This way when they bounce, they automatically end up at your main email for processing. Process the emails and suppress all your hard bounces to never send to them again. I also use those domains for links in the email.

Personally, I prefer a vps with 1 ip on 50 providers than 50 ip's on 1 provider. I try and spend less than $4 per ip. sure it may be a little expensive, but you don't get entire ranges blacklisted and you get a variety of ip's to send from. i've bought a vps with 20 ip's only to have it banned 3 days later. that ends up costing much more than spreading it over dozens of cheap vps that last much longer.

The only thing that matters is the senderscore and being listed on the major blacklists anyways. fuck spf, dkim, rdns, and all that other bullshit. just don't hammer with dead emails. If it already lands in the spambox, fuck it. think about it - there is no spam button in the spambox. This keeps your senderscore decent so you see less temp bans and you can push much more volume to compensate. Just send over and over and over again (after scrubbing the bounces) until they eventually see it. The days of inboxing major providers are just about gone.

I spent a loooong time trying to find the magic forumula to inbox my mail. I got the same results doing it this way as I did setting everything up the right way. It's a hell of a lot easier anyways.

Awesome Really helpful information
I was just stuck with dkim, spf etc

Afallison summarized in pretty well. Altough I disagree with the proper reverse being not important, he's absolutely right about the main point. Sender score. That's all that matters in the end.

Thank you, very usefull info.

My only question is that what is the limit of the sending / day / hour ect ? or when the hosting provider will ban ?

I am a newbie, so please excuse any ignorance on my part, but I have a business that is currently set up with blue host, I obviously am having issues with mass emailing. I would like to know what my options are in terms of setting up mu Biz with a hosting company that will allow mass emailing, so if anyone can give a step by step, it would be gratly appreciated.

Hi,


The only way to keep relation with you customers/users is only to email them and let them know what is now happening on your website. Mostly people use email marketing as it the best way to keep in touch. I personally use bulk emailing to that I won't lose them at any cost. If your having a website and need to promote your website then I will highly recommend you to use Bulk emailing. But there are some point I would like to highlight as it might help you in Bulk emailing.


-- Always use a Dedicated platform that will help you to deliver the email within the recipient Inbox not the Spam folder (nobody checks spam folder).


-- Dedicated SMTPs, IPs and Domain which should be clean (not listed in Blacklists)


-- A platform that has a subscription button on the email so that you will know which of your recipient is interested in your items/products.


-- A live report of your campaign running will always be helpful to know how many people had clicked and how many emails has been delivered. So the report should be for Opens + Clicks + Deliveries + Bounces + Blocks.


-- A live support that will let you know if your missing any point in running a campaign or having trouble in using any of the feature. Always preferred a live chat support of phone support so that you won't wait for some to response you via email.


I'm personally using "Imailunlimited" and always have found them helpful to run campaign and the best of all part is that when ever my list not clean they also provide service for cleaning up my list "Cleanmyemaillist" I would highly recommend them as the best I could find within the email marketing.


Thanks for the paid attention to my post.

Muzamilsabir said:

Hi,


The only way to keep relation with you customers/users is only to email them and let them know what is now happening on your website. Mostly people use email marketing as it the best way to keep in touch. I personally use bulk emailing to that I won't lose them at any cost. If your having a website and need to promote your website then I will highly recommend you to use Bulk emailing. But there are some point I would like to highlight as it might help you in Bulk emailing.


-- Always use a Dedicated platform that will help you to deliver the email within the recipient Inbox not the Spam folder (nobody checks spam folder).


-- Dedicated SMTPs, IPs and Domain which should be clean (not listed in Blacklists)


-- A platform that has a subscription button on the email so that you will know which of your recipient is interested in your items/products.


-- A live report of your campaign running will always be helpful to know how many people had clicked and how many emails has been delivered. So the report should be for Opens + Clicks + Deliveries + Bounces + Blocks.


-- A live support that will let you know if your missing any point in running a campaign or having trouble in using any of the feature. Always preferred a live chat support of phone support so that you won't wait for some to response you via email.


I'm personally using "Imailunlimited" and always have found them helpful to run campaign and the best of all part is that when ever my list not clean they also provide service for cleaning up my list "Cleanmyemaillist" I would highly recommend them as the best I could find within the email marketing.


Thanks for the paid attention to my post.

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