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by graemep 264 days ago
You can usually switch host. Some have better IP reputations than others.

There are quite a few other providers of email forwarding services, although I might look at SES myself if its that cheap as I have issues with hotmail (I seem to be OK with most mail to email on MS hosted email on other domains, oddly enough).

1 comments

> You can usually switch host

...it took OP 8 months of "rolling the gacha" and waiting to get a clean IP; no mention of costs. Not really a solution in my book. If you're willing to wait 8 months for working email, I put it to you you're actually using some other provider for your life and the thing you are playing with is a toy.

I've been self-hosting my email for a pretty long time. I first started down the reputation rabbit hole when a provider decided to shut up shop after a decade of operation, causing me to lose my lovely fixed IP block with its decade-old clean rep. Waiting/playing around isn't really an option when your email is broken and you need it working /today/ because it's not a throwaway toy - your digital life is tied to it.

Still, as I said at the start, if you get lucky, awesome for you.

If cost is not an issue one can run standby servers in multiple locations and have backups to all of them. Just as MX records allow for multiple inbound servers one can have multiple outbound servers as well. Park a few unused or vanity domains on them and have cronjobs send automated emails to yourself. I reply to those emails so the likes of Gmail see interaction between them. With time all IP addresses get good reputation.
An IP laundering service certainly sounds like a potential startup opportunity. Certainly I'd have paid for a proven good IP in the past before I developed my current solution.
You mean reputation laundering ?

Email marketing services provide a similar feature called IP warm-up which does the same thing but over a shorter timeline.

...as disconnected from "email marketing services" as possible, please, because IME gmail is wise to those and files email associated with them directly in the trash regardless of all other concerns.

I suspect the reason SES is an exception is because it is very widely used for things like e-tickets, transaction confirmations and so on, and also goes to a nonzero amount of trouble to dissuade marketers rather than having them as the main customers.

> ..it took OP 8 months of "rolling the gacha" and waiting to get a clean IP; no mention of costs.

I dont see anything about it taking the OP 8 months to get a clean IP? They were on Hetzner, and can presumably keep making new VM's for a while until they get a clean one. Hetzner bills based on hours used, so I imagine that total cost would be quite low.

> I dont see anything about it taking the OP 8 months to get a clean IP?

Here you go: https://mastodon.social/@whitequark/115298148901108415