Somewhat OT: Mail Relay Services

[Russell L. Carter]

On 2/28/21 11:01 AM, Tim Daneliuk wrote:
> For many years, I've run a mail system built on FreeBSD for my own small business.
> It's been as flawless as any mail server ever can be, requiring only periodic
> maintenance and updates.
> 
> The primary server runs in a 3rd party cloud environment.  We are starting to
> see parts of their network blacklisted by the various UCE blackholing services.
> Unfortunately, they don't just blackhole a single IP, but an entire subnet at
> a time, which catches us in the mix.
> 
> The big mail hubs like outlook.com no longer have a mechanism for removing the block
> for a single ip and kick you back to your ISP or hosting provider for resolution.
> 
> So ... we are contemplating using a smart host to do all our outbound email for us
> via relays from our own mail servers.  Presumably, such a smart host would be better
> equipped to deal with bad blacklisting and delivery issues.
> 
> So ... does anyone have experience or recommendations as to who would be a good
> provider for a low volume, small business mail relay?

I'm all ears and appreciative of any pointers on this topic as well.
I have been running my own mail servers for two domains for > 20 years.
The volume is so low and I try to stay "mainstream" in configuration
so I've never been blacklisted (that I know about, I watch).  However,
my current last mile ISP is centurylink, from whom I lease 5 static
ips.  And they just up and deleted my ptr records for over a month,
and didn't fix it, even after hours on chat, until I shamed them with
an analysis on dslreports, showing how their tech support was flat
out stupid or lying.  It happens, but it made terrified of being
reliant on them.  So I've decided to put my dovecot+rspamd+postfix
system up on some popular VPS.   I am leaning toward vultr, haven't
had any problems with them for years, but I've never needed to
ask them to open port 25, and they require you to ask.

But I hadn't thought that my co-tenants might cause me a problem with
blacklisted subnets!

Anybody know of a successful strategy here?  Maintaining your own
servers can occasionally be a pain, but I really like managing my
own servers exactly how I want them.

Thanks,
Russell



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