SMTP AUTH and ODMR Providers for Personal SMTP Service?

no_such_user asks: "After a few years of successfully running a personal mail server at home via my residential cable modem, some organizations (i.e. AOL) and spam filters are now denying SMTP connections originating from residential/dynamic networks. Additionally, my ISP will likely block incoming SMTP traffic at some point. While I applaud these attempts to fight spam, I enjoy the freedom I have running my own mail server, and don't want to switch to a mail hosting provider using POP/IMAP/Webmail. What I need is a provider which does both ODMR (on-demand mail routing) and SMTP AUTH. Unfortunately, the only provider I've found is outside my country (US) and is more expensive than I was hoping for. Without switching to 'business class' internet service, what are my alternatives so that I can continue to run my own mail server without spending a fortune? I don't mind being subject to reasonable daily transfer limits or speed limits to prove I'm not out to spam anyone. Perhaps these is something like a DynDNS service for mail? Or perhaps someone provides permanent IP addresses which I can add to my server via VPN?"

Comments

ho hum

[Anonymous Coward]

While I applaud these attempts to fight spam, I enjoy the freedom I have running my own mail server

You, and every other spammer. You want to run your own mail server unchecked, but then you complain about all the spam you get. Can't have it both ways.

Smarthost

[FattMattP]

Why not configure your upstream SMTP server as a smarthost on your SMTP server? That way outgoing mail from your MTA is sent to your ISPs MTA for delivery.

The Second Digital Divide

[theCoder]

Beware, the following post is slightly off-topic, as it doesn't really offer any advice to the poster, but the poster's question prompted me to write this...

While I applaud these attempts to fight spam,

That's your first problem. Efforts like this are largely starting what I'm calling the second "Digital Divide". The first (and traditional) digital divide is between those who have the resources to get online and those who do not. However, I'm noticing a second division amoung those who are online -- those who are able to consume and create content and those who are only allowed to consume it. Most ISPs are moving towards the consume only model. Whether it's through artificial upload caps or through overly restrictive AUPs, it seems that most people are only clients on the Internet.

Right now, for example, I am apparently not allowed to serve web pages over my (expensive) cable connection for any reason whatsoever. It doesn't matter that I would be using very little bandwidth, or that it was for personal use, I'm not allowed to serve content on the Internet. This unfortunately, is being done by a technical block (incoming port 80 is firewalled off) and not a legal one (of their many AUPs, the only reference I can find to servers is that all servers must be secure). But the effect is the same.

It seems that more and more, only businesses are allowed to be creators. And "business class" service is really just the regular service but without the artifical limitations. And I should pay twice as much (or more) for that?

This assult on email by AOL and others is just another indication for this phenomenon (I don't think it's happening by design any more than the first digital divide happened by design). AOL, in it's attempt to fight an onslaught of worthless spam, has started blocking thousands of innocent emailers. I don't condone this any more than I would condone sending an innocent man to prison in order to convict a thousand guilty men or dropping a nuclear bomb on Bagdahd to get Saddam. Some people would be OK with things like that, but that's not the sort of ends justify the means world I want to live in. Frankly, AOL should be kicked off the net for their actions, but I know that's not going to happen because too many people either agree that the ends justify the means, or just don't give a damn because it doesn't affect them.

So, maybe I'm just a little too idealistic here, but these things just shouldn't be happening. I don't know what the end outcome will be. Maybe the Internet will become like TV -- still having some worth and still a big part of people's lives, but missing it's potential (TV, like radio before it, was supposed to bring about an age of enlightenment, or at least knowledge in the population). Maybe a sub-Internet will form over the existing Internet (possibly encryped and/or hidden) that allows people to be creators. Maybe wireless will change everything.

I don't know the future and I don't have any good solutions. This is just what I see happening now.

Re:The Second Digital Divide

[0x0d0a]

It seems that more and more, only businesses are allowed to be creators. And "business class" service is really just the regular service but without the artifical limitations. And I should pay twice as much (or more) for that?

Yes. It sucks, but before, people that used their broadband connections only lightly were subsidizing P2P users and people operating high-bandwidth servers. It's not "making things more expensive", it's "making people pay for what they're using".

Granted, your server may not use much bandwidth, but it's difficult to make finely-grained enough pricing tiers for ISPs -- and they want their pricing to be clear to everyone. Until such time as all desktop OSes have easy-to-use total bandwidth usage monitors built in and enabled by default, it's easier for them to just say "Web servers cost N dollars" than "Web servers cost N dollars *up to* for less than one gig outgoing a month".