5 ms·

As some who has suffered through managing a qmail smtp cluster and dealing with DNSBLs, allow me to say just one thing: Very. Underrated. Comment.

mmastrac 6y ago
Yep. Just send it from a residential IP. I ended up subscribing to an SMTP service that explicitly masked my home IP as Google's sending service included it and was causing my emails to my bank to automatically get flagged as spam.
Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
As someone who has set up many SMTP servers even on very new domain names. Yhe only issue I've actually come across is outlook.com who happily will whitelist if you poke them via their support once you you have dkim and spf set up. EDIT: if you are working from IPs that may not be clean (and in an IPv4 world thats prob true) many DNSBLs will work with you to remove your ip's from their lists if you are actually nice and polite with them. Just check your IP's before your set up your network so they have a heads up that someone will be on the other end of any complaints. That has always works for me.
- XiS 6y ago
  outlook.com is indeed the worst. Got a pointer how to make this whitelist happen @outlook? Got SPF and DKIM setup since I started my personal mailserver, but still piggybacking of my old University's open relay (on campus) to get my mail to land in outlook inboxes...
  - Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/supportrequestform/8ad563e3-288e-2a61-8122-3ba03d6b8d75 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/supportrequestform/8ad56... And if you get rejected with your first request, pester them with a follow up saying something like "Hey, I'm, a cloud customer. I don't control the whole IP range. I ask you to reconsider the initial rejection." That's always worked for me with outlook. Takes a few days (which is why I say do it as soon as you know what your IP range is) Be nice and polite (from what I understand real humans read that request) be honest with what you have done as of time of writing the requyest and what you are planning to do. But be persistent with them and they will basically grant you a whitelist unless you start fucking up.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
- _jal 6y ago
  In my experience, ATT is the worst. They've been blocking me for well over a decade. They're the only provider who has ignored every contact attempt I've made. I don't care, from my perspective they're irrelevant. The last person I communicated who used their MX died recently, and otherwise ATT can bite me. But in a fit of annoyance several years ago I did configure my servers to deliver a heartfelt custom 550 response to ATT MXes.
  - Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
    IIRC AT&T is handled by Yahoo so pester them at https://io.help.yahoo.com/contact/index?page=contactform&locale=en_US&token=Zh/BBVqXzLHlIbokbUqVWTUbuuQeXGkGnZzhKR2JQ4O6mMQdy9JSWdtWFXvjthcYCRj9bUIFfycOfG+4GOHPHoOGa8HwDO2+0kYRtTcdR8O13Mvs9cOruJ0TlC3hh4bCEtPlZ0yk7fvp1MFjGnAOWw==&selectedChannel=email-icon&isVip=false https://io.help.yahoo.com/contact/index?page=contactform&loc... EDIT: https://www.att.com/esupport/postmaster/digital-signature/ https://www.att.com/esupport/postmaster/digital-signature/ checked the AT&T support about delievery. Seems like they do use Yahoo these days.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - _jal 6y ago
      Yahoo made a deal with them to service the mail services SBC bought/built that were rolled up into att.net. That is one of several mail services associated with them, and not the one I'm talking about. I'm talking about the ones managed by Synacor, formerly managed by an ATT spinoff with a bland name I can't remember. I still have my notebook logging my (lack of) progress, which happened over several years and involved a bunch of entities - partners and internal spinoffs. Trust me, I know how to google "att email".
      - Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
        I wasn't saying you didn't know any googlefu. just when you said ATT my head went to "oh you are dealing with their consumers... should thought I would C+P the link thats helped me in the past. EDIT: As a follow up. I used to have contacts with BlueYonder, Sky and BT All ISP's that used to manager their own email systems but outsourced them to gmail and yahoo so my peronsal contacts within those companies for email have died off. It wasn't a slight on you. just one geek to another trying to help.
- tomcooks 6y ago
  What about Gmail.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tunesmith 6y ago
What even is the best way (reliably and free) these days to set up a website that occasionally sends email? I have a hobby site on a linode for creative writers to follow up to each other's chapters, and it's very low volume, but I don't want to sent it all through my gmail account, either.
- chmullig 6y ago
  Something like sendgrid?
- dmurray 6y ago
  Mailgun reduced their free tier drastically recently, I think to 625/month. If that fits your needs it's a decent choice.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - zubspace 6y ago
    Hmm, I can't find a free plan: https://www.mailgun.com/pricing https://www.mailgun.com/pricing
    - dmurray 6y ago
      Looks like you're right, they abandoned the free plan altogether on March 1. The new deal is $0.80 per thousand messages with no minimum spend, which may be negligible for you, but there are likely free alternatives out there too. HN discussion from when they downgraded the free tier, includes some discussion of alternatives: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22192543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22192543
      - thomaslord 6y ago
        They eliminated the free tier, but as of June they won't be billing for <=1250 messages a month. Link from the email they sent: https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048661093-How-does-PAYG-billing-work- https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048661093-How-...

mmastrac 6y ago

Yep. Just send it from a residential IP. I ended up subscribing to an SMTP service that explicitly masked my home IP as Google's sending service included it and was causing my emails to my bank to automatically get flagged as spam.

Crosseye_Jack 6y ago

As someone who has set up many SMTP servers even on very new domain names. Yhe only issue I've actually come across is outlook.com who happily will whitelist if you poke them via their support once you you have dkim and spf set up. EDIT: if you are working from IPs that may not be clean (and in an IPv4 world thats prob true) many DNSBLs will work with you to remove your ip's from their lists if you are actually nice and polite with them. Just check your IP's before your set up your network so they have a heads up that someone will be on the other end of any complaints. That has always works for me.

XiS 6y ago
outlook.com is indeed the worst. Got a pointer how to make this whitelist happen @outlook? Got SPF and DKIM setup since I started my personal mailserver, but still piggybacking of my old University's open relay (on campus) to get my mail to land in outlook inboxes...
- Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/supportrequestform/8ad563e3-288e-2a61-8122-3ba03d6b8d75 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/supportrequestform/8ad56... And if you get rejected with your first request, pester them with a follow up saying something like "Hey, I'm, a cloud customer. I don't control the whole IP range. I ask you to reconsider the initial rejection." That's always worked for me with outlook. Takes a few days (which is why I say do it as soon as you know what your IP range is) Be nice and polite (from what I understand real humans read that request) be honest with what you have done as of time of writing the requyest and what you are planning to do. But be persistent with them and they will basically grant you a whitelist unless you start fucking up.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
_jal 6y ago
In my experience, ATT is the worst. They've been blocking me for well over a decade. They're the only provider who has ignored every contact attempt I've made. I don't care, from my perspective they're irrelevant. The last person I communicated who used their MX died recently, and otherwise ATT can bite me. But in a fit of annoyance several years ago I did configure my servers to deliver a heartfelt custom 550 response to ATT MXes.
- Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
  IIRC AT&T is handled by Yahoo so pester them at https://io.help.yahoo.com/contact/index?page=contactform&locale=en_US&token=Zh/BBVqXzLHlIbokbUqVWTUbuuQeXGkGnZzhKR2JQ4O6mMQdy9JSWdtWFXvjthcYCRj9bUIFfycOfG+4GOHPHoOGa8HwDO2+0kYRtTcdR8O13Mvs9cOruJ0TlC3hh4bCEtPlZ0yk7fvp1MFjGnAOWw==&selectedChannel=email-icon&isVip=false https://io.help.yahoo.com/contact/index?page=contactform&loc... EDIT: https://www.att.com/esupport/postmaster/digital-signature/ https://www.att.com/esupport/postmaster/digital-signature/ checked the AT&T support about delievery. Seems like they do use Yahoo these days.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - _jal 6y ago
    Yahoo made a deal with them to service the mail services SBC bought/built that were rolled up into att.net. That is one of several mail services associated with them, and not the one I'm talking about. I'm talking about the ones managed by Synacor, formerly managed by an ATT spinoff with a bland name I can't remember. I still have my notebook logging my (lack of) progress, which happened over several years and involved a bunch of entities - partners and internal spinoffs. Trust me, I know how to google "att email".
    - Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
      I wasn't saying you didn't know any googlefu. just when you said ATT my head went to "oh you are dealing with their consumers... should thought I would C+P the link thats helped me in the past. EDIT: As a follow up. I used to have contacts with BlueYonder, Sky and BT All ISP's that used to manager their own email systems but outsourced them to gmail and yahoo so my peronsal contacts within those companies for email have died off. It wasn't a slight on you. just one geek to another trying to help.
tomcooks 6y ago
What about Gmail.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

tunesmith 6y ago

What even is the best way (reliably and free) these days to set up a website that occasionally sends email? I have a hobby site on a linode for creative writers to follow up to each other's chapters, and it's very low volume, but I don't want to sent it all through my gmail account, either.

chmullig 6y ago
Something like sendgrid?
dmurray 6y ago
Mailgun reduced their free tier drastically recently, I think to 625/month. If that fits your needs it's a decent choice.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- zubspace 6y ago
  Hmm, I can't find a free plan: https://www.mailgun.com/pricing https://www.mailgun.com/pricing
  - dmurray 6y ago
    Looks like you're right, they abandoned the free plan altogether on March 1. The new deal is $0.80 per thousand messages with no minimum spend, which may be negligible for you, but there are likely free alternatives out there too. HN discussion from when they downgraded the free tier, includes some discussion of alternatives: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22192543 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22192543
    - thomaslord 6y ago
      They eliminated the free tier, but as of June they won't be billing for <=1250 messages a month. Link from the email they sent: https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048661093-How-does-PAYG-billing-work- https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048661093-How-...