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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?"
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.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
Your problem is twofold:
(1) Sending email.
(2) Receiving email.
Part 1 is not a problem: You merely have to relay your outgoing email through your service provider's SMTP server. This is the way that you should your outbound email configured anyway, you're incorrectly configured if you're not passing mail upstream through your ISP.
ISPs that know what they're doing from a technical standpoint allow you to send mail through their servers with whatever "from" address you want - so long as you're within their network, they know who you are anyway and can still monitor spam attempts. I have Earthlink DSL and they let customers do this (they've allowed this since way back when I was a dial-up customer). For example, I can send outbound email through Earthlink's servers with the "from" field being my Yahoo or work email address. Of course, I can't do this outside their network (500 access denied messages up the whazoo) - when I'm at work and want to send mail "from" my Earthlink account, I use my work's SMTP server.
Part 2 is more tricky. If direct SMTP connections are disallowed to your home system, perhaps the trick would be to get it delivered to an external server that you can then poll every 10 minutes (or get it forwarded to the email address your ISP provided for you, then poll that?) There are a number of companies that can relay mail for you and forward it to another account from your domain - Yahoo being one of them.
Also: You mention DynDNS - Dns2go.com had a mail relay service at one point (I've not used their system since it went commercial) that may be exactly what you're looking for in terms of receiving mail.
Personally though, I like keeping my DSL connection free of automated transfers and manually pull mail from my ISP's POP servers, Yahoo's web mail (search for the "fetchyahoo" perl script) and Hotmail (search for "gotmail" script) to local mail storage. The last thing I'd want is for all that to be triggered and start downloading spam while I'm trying to play a game online.
If you use a portion of your coloc to host your open source project, you can get the coloc for $45 USD a month. For that, you get the following:
- - root on your own server
- - Full Linux Filesystem
- - 4 gigs disk - Up to 10 IPs
- - 40 Gigs transfer / Month
- - Firewall access
- - Unlimited tech support
- - They supply the hardware
Doing this, it is very easy to set up your own mail/web/etc server without many of the problems you get from hosting those services at home.Just an idea.
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.
"Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs" -- author unknown
Wow, what a coincidence, I've been researching the same topic recently.
Here are two providers that I've found so far:
Both of these providers seem to meet my needs and have reasonable pricing, under $20/year. There were some other business-class services out there that I ruled out due to $100+ monthly costs.