[bigiain]

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?)

[eikenberry]

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.

[startling]

I used Digital Ocean for a year. No problems, never sent spam. Then my mail started being spamfiltered, apparently because a neighbor was spamming. Seriously don't recommend using cloud hosts if you care about people receiving your email.

[bigiain]

Hmmm, thanks for that. I just checked my CloudAtCost VM, which I'd never have considered running outbound mail from, and it's not on _any_ of the 90+ blacklists mxtools checks. This astounds me!

[icebraining]

FWIW, I stopped using my home connection because it was listed on Spamhaus' PBL, you might want to check that out if you plan on using yours: https://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/

I'm using DO currently and it's been working fine, though it's just for personal email.

[kalleboo]

I'm surprised to hear there are home ISPs that still allow outgoing traffic on port 25... I used to run an email server at home, and both ISPs I used required you to route all outgoing email through their SMTP server (which presumably had an outgoing spam filter on it). This worked fine for me because it meant my outgoing mail had a good reputation.

[garaetjjte]

Why? I expect from ISPs to deliver IP packets to/from my address, without filtering on basis what is in payload.

Though once when device connected to my wifi got infected and started sending spam, I got angry (not e)mail from ISP, so I drop tcp/25 on my router firewall.

[kalleboo]

So you, someone technical enough to set up their own email server, was spamming people, and it presumably took days or weeks for someone to report you, and you to check your mailbox and get around configuring your firewall.

Now imagine the typical user who has no idea what the letter means or how to configure their router and just ignores it...

I'm surprised your whole ISPs dynamic IP pool isn't already on every spam block list.

edit: just realized you aren't the poster I was replying to, so presumably you're not running your own email server

[startling]

I used DO for a year without a problem, and then my IP was blacklisted (apparently a neighbor was spamming) and I couldn't do anything about it. Be warned, and frequently check if Google accounts receive mail frequently.

[wjd2030]

I ended up using an smtp service from Mailjet to get around this issue. 600 free emails a month.

[josephb]

How does your setup interface with Mailjet?

[Sir_Cmpwn]

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.

[TheGrumpyBrit]

I use DO without any problems. You need to make sure your IP isn't blacklisted before you start (and if it is, trash the instance and try again), and keep an eye on blacklists in case your range gets caught, but you should really be doing that anyway.