[snazz]

> It's so easy to configure and run your own mail server

Is it? Is dealing with IP reputation, getting your emails accepted by major providers, and being on the hook for fixing everything yourself very easy? I haven't tried, so I don't have personal experience, but I've heard enough horror stories to think that it's not a good use of my time.

[megous]

Sending side of the MTA can be set up manually in about an hour on a Debian server, with dmarc, dkim, spf, etc. Make that a day if you want to read up on and understand each of the things in more detail, if you haven't configured them before. There's really not much to play with in this direction for a typical personal mail server.

Receiving side is where there is a great range of options, and many things to try and have fun with. You can have anything from a single catchall mailbox with no filtering, no GUI, and a simple IMAP or POP3 access for MUA, to a multi-account, multi-domain setup with server side filtering, database driven mailbox and alias management, proper TLS, web MUA access, etc. It can also be built up gradually, starting from very simple setup to something more complicated so that you never lose account of how things work.

[alphadevx]

Mine are accepted by Gmail so I am good. Considering how dominant Gmail is, that's all that really matters.

Regarding getting a bad IP rating, normally that's due to having an insecure config, like acting as an open relay, or not having DKIM enabled. There are lots of tutorials online about this, if you know Linux it really is easy.

[EarthIsHome]

I had an IP reputation issue and managed to resolve it after some time.

TLDR: Before you spin up a mail server, check if your IP address is on any of the blacklists [0]-[1] as well as Proof Point's list [2]. If it is, then try and get a different IP address.

I spun up a hosted server on Digital Ocean and received an IP address. I checked several black lists from a few email testing/troubleshooting sites [0] and [1] and all was groovy; my IP address wasn't on any list.

I got a bunch of 521 bounces when I tried emailing a neighbor who had an att.net address.

So, I checked the troubleshooting websites, and my IP address was listed as clean.

My logs said I should forward the error to [e-mail], so I did.

Those emails were never delivered, because abuse-att.net had its own blacklist. I was getting 553 errors. In the logs, the message from their server told me to check https://ipcheck.proofpoint.com.

Proof point runs their own blacklist that some enterprises use (e.g. att and apple [3]). I checked their list, and lo and behold, my IP address from Digital Ocean was blocked [2]. Digital Ocean wasn't able to remove the IP address from their blocklist and suggested I spin up a new droplet with a different IP address.

I didn't want to do that, so I sent Proof Point an email that went unanswered; the email asked them to remove my IP address. I forgot about the issue for five or six months (this is a personal server), and ran into the issue again a few months ago. So I sent Proof Point an email again, this time with different wording emphasizing that "my clients" were having delivery issues. Within a day, they removed my IP address from their block list.

So, my main suggestion is to check if your IP address is on any of the blacklists as well as Proof Point's list before you start on your server. If it is, then try and get a different IP address.

Does anyone have more "enterprise" lists, like Proof Point, to check?

[0]: https://www.mail-tester.com/

[1]: https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

[2]: https://ipcheck.proofpoint.com

[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/email/comments/6toxzr/ip_blocked_by...

[teddyh]

Used by Microsoft: https://sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.com/snds/index....