Setting up my own smtp server? Questions.

watchintv · Mar 4, 2020

hey guys had some questions regarding mailing. i was interested in running my own smtp server with postfix or another reliable mta. after some research i found most of the popular hosting companies block smtp traffic and force you to use their own smtp relay which filters your outgoing mail traffic. so, i dug a little deeper and asked godaddy if this is the case, and they said i can setup postfix on my own vps or dedi and send outgoing with no filtering or throttling, and insisting port 25 is not blocked. is this true? or is there a miscommunication?

legion85 · Mar 4, 2020

i'd personally go with someone else's smtp. i have enough knowledge to set up my own but everyone says that having your own mail server is just way too much work. i'm using mxroute.com it's like 40€ for 2 years or something like that.

watchintv · Mar 4, 2020

legion85 said:
i'd personally go with someone else's smtp. i have enough knowledge to set up my own but everyone says that having your own mail server is just way too much work. i'm using mxroute.com it's like 40€ for 2 years or something like that.

ill look into that. thanks.

ive never set something like this up before, so just doing some research.

yeah, i suppose it may be too much work, but i sort of got the impression id have greater control in how i send. rotating ips, custom mailing software, etc. thoughts?

bae · Mar 4, 2020

I've done it before.

My strongest advice is to use a dedicated server for the mail hosting (don't host websites or others services) so you won't end up in a spam list due to some website you're hosting.

Mail hosting is a PITA. You've solutions like ISPConfig that help you setting up a proper server with DKIM and SPF but that isn't enough. You'll have to invest a few time to build trust to your domain

If you're a skilled sysadmin go ahead, if not just pay someone to do it (either a sysadmin or a hosting mail company)

watchintv · Mar 4, 2020

bae said:
I've done it before.

My strongest advice is to use a dedicated server for the mail hosting (don't host websites or others services) so you won't end up in a spam list due to some website you're hosting.

Mail hosting is a PITA. You've solutions like ISPConfig that help you setting up a proper server with DKIM and SPF but that isn't enough. You'll have to invest a few time to build trust to your domain

If you're a skilled sysadmin go ahead, if not just pay someone to do it (either a sysadmin or a hosting mail company)

ok, so im on the right track. but what about a hosting company, like godaddy for instance. would i be able to send directly from a vps or dedicated server with them, without them throttling my outgoing mail?

legion85 · Mar 4, 2020

watchintv said:
ill look into that. thanks.

ive never set something like this up before, so just doing some research.

yeah, i suppose it may be too much work, but i sort of got the impression id have greater control in how i send. rotating ips, custom mailing software, etc. thoughts?

i do not have so much experience with this. i do know that once your ip is blacklisted, you're screwed as your emails will be rejected.

igtaya · Mar 4, 2020

The most difficult is not to send the email but to make it arrive to the main inbox rather than the spam or promotion one.

In order to do this you need to have clean ip not the ones marked as spam...

xcodes · Mar 4, 2020

Everyone should follow basic rule warmup. No matter its amazon or sparkpost until they are sure your not among the spammers they dont give you access to inbox folder directly.

And coming to own SMTP setup almost all popular hosting companies out their including ours we config the exim for safe mails out only which are filtered by spamcop. if i started talking about that it will take so much time to explain.

And we do have email servers but they come with full setup

thanks.

watchintv · Mar 5, 2020

thanks for the replies!

how does a vps differ from a dedicated server from a mailing pov? i know that a vps is slower hardware wise, but if i got a dedicated ip for the vps, would anything be different from a mailing perspective?

also, what are best ways to track if the mail i send is going into a persons inbox or spam folder? i looked around and it seems that its not possible to get this information, except by including emails of my own to see if my content is being sent to the inbox or spam.

stromind · Mar 5, 2020

setting up own smtp server for sake of mails is not recommended at all, But if your emails are not spam and you are not planning to do email marketing then there is no harm in doing that,
When you install cPanel or any other panel like it they usually configure exim for you to start. but for email marketers they use powermta like tools and a lot of IPs with rotation to get as much good results as possible.
if you want to use it for personal emails, their are a lot of mail smtp providers to use i personally using mailchannels for my business emails and i am hassle free.
improving mail score can increase your chances to hit mailbox.

MDubbs · Mar 6, 2020

bae said:
I've done it before.

My strongest advice is to use a dedicated server for the mail hosting (don't host websites or others services) so you won't end up in a spam list due to some website you're hosting.

Mail hosting is a PITA. You've solutions like ISPConfig that help you setting up a proper server with DKIM and SPF but that isn't enough. You'll have to invest a few time to build trust to your domain

If you're a skilled sysadmin go ahead, if not just pay someone to do it (either a sysadmin or a hosting mail company)

This is great advice. Having hosted an email server before for over 100+ clients, its important that there is a dedicated server, away from all other hosted sites for IP reputation

bae · Mar 6, 2020

watchintv said:
ok, so im on the right track. but what about a hosting company, like godaddy for instance. would i be able to send directly from a vps or dedicated server with them, without them throttling my outgoing mail?

The hosting company should do interfere with the mail communication. For specific cases like P2P yes they do, but not for e-mail.

I wouldn't host the server with GoDaddy. Go for a more reputable company in terms of servers hosting like OVH. I'm not saying that GoDaddy is a bad company but they're more focused to webhosting.

Setting up my own smtp server? Questions.

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