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I have been running my own mail server for two years on my private ISP and have less problems than expected - even with the dynamic IP address (in practice, it

by adrium 5y ago

I have been running my own mail server for two years on my private ISP and have less problems than expected - even with the dynamic IP address (in practice, it changes once in 6-12 months) and no PTR. I also switched the ISP once. I have SPF, DKIM, DMARC. Edit: The nice thing about running the mail server personally and without a relay (like mailgun) is that mail is to-my-end encrypted. If the other party is running its own mail server, it could even be E2E encrypted. Considering the vast amount of personal information that going through email, this makes me feel good in terms of privacy. I have never heard of UCEPROTECT and fortunately, I never had to deal with it. The language on the webpage somehow reminds me of Kryptochef... A small inconvenience is that I had to unblock the IP on Spamhaus PBL every month. By now, it feels as if they know me, because I now only have to do this once if I get a new IP... Many mail servers are nice and provide the reason for the block even with hints how to unblock it. I successfully unblocked it on Abusix and Microsoft. Never had an issue with Google. GMX on the other hand will never accept my email because they require a proper PTR record. They are the only company I have come across and I find that scandalous.

phishersfritz 5y ago
Your comment about no issues with no valid PTR surprised me. Spamhaus PBL is build based on your ISP telling Spamhaus which IPs are dynamic and which IPs should not send email. Your ISPs seemed to be nice enough to allow you delisting from it, which not all ISPs will allow. Abusix has a similar list, but its completely build based on dynamic looking or no PTRs. You can create an account and delist without any issues. Never the less there is way more services than GMX that block based on dynamic or no PTR. A lot of smaller solutions have this option checked by default. And it actually has been a best practice for decades to have a proper PTR. If you can, I'd set one and be done with it.
shirro 5y ago
I like running my own mail server but I don't want to waste time on filtering spam so mismatches with ptr and hostname are an instant rejection from me. A PTR match is a very strong signal that I am looking at a hosted server or business connection which is configured to send email and not a compromised windows PC on consumer dsl which used to be a huge problem. ISPs supply those dsl ranges to blocklists as well. When I first started hosting my own mail it was on an old repurposed linux PC on ISDN in the early 2000s and even then my ISP offered configurable PTR records along with static IP in a small business package. I moved my family email vps to a different region recently and it took me a few seconds to update the ptr records for ipv4 and ipv6. It seems a very low bar for such a strong signal that you are dealing with a mail server and not some random compromised machine.

by adrium 5y ago

phishersfritz 5y ago

Your comment about no issues with no valid PTR surprised me. Spamhaus PBL is build based on your ISP telling Spamhaus which IPs are dynamic and which IPs should not send email. Your ISPs seemed to be nice enough to allow you delisting from it, which not all ISPs will allow. Abusix has a similar list, but its completely build based on dynamic looking or no PTRs. You can create an account and delist without any issues. Never the less there is way more services than GMX that block based on dynamic or no PTR. A lot of smaller solutions have this option checked by default. And it actually has been a best practice for decades to have a proper PTR. If you can, I'd set one and be done with it.

shirro 5y ago

I like running my own mail server but I don't want to waste time on filtering spam so mismatches with ptr and hostname are an instant rejection from me. A PTR match is a very strong signal that I am looking at a hosted server or business connection which is configured to send email and not a compromised windows PC on consumer dsl which used to be a huge problem. ISPs supply those dsl ranges to blocklists as well. When I first started hosting my own mail it was on an old repurposed linux PC on ISDN in the early 2000s and even then my ISP offered configurable PTR records along with static IP in a small business package. I moved my family email vps to a different region recently and it took me a few seconds to update the ptr records for ipv4 and ipv6. It seems a very low bar for such a strong signal that you are dealing with a mail server and not some random compromised machine.