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Experience in deliverability/inbox landing of e-mail (low traffic, private usage) from VPS
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Experience in deliverability/inbox landing of e-mail (low traffic, private usage) from VPS

I'm thinking of setting up my own SMTP server on a VPS (dedicated IP, clean). I would use it for private stuff, 2 users. No mailing lists, no promo, no ads. I have experience with setting up DKIM, DMARC, SPS, whatever. I would register it with Google and Microsoft.

What's your experience in regard? Does deliverability/inbox landing stay high, perhaps after some warmup?

P.S. I know of low end solutions, I actually use MXroute for other things. I just would like my own for this.

Comments

  • skorupionskorupion Member, Host Rep

    Honestly i use Cyberpanel solution to email, and only once it failed me after some packages were deleted, but i was able to quickly repair this with help of Low End Support.
    Never had any issues with deliverability

    Thanked by 1sgheghele
  • @sgheghele said:
    I'm thinking of setting up my own SMTP server on a VPS (dedicated IP, clean). I would use it for private stuff, 2 users. No mailing lists, no promo, no ads. I have experience with setting up DKIM, DMARC, SPS, whatever. I would register it with Google and Microsoft.

    What's your experience in regard? Does deliverability/inbox landing stay high, perhaps after some warmup?

    P.S. I know of low end solutions, I actually use MXroute for other things. I just would like my own for this.

    Hello,

    The chances are high that your inbox rate will remain high, per your description,, if you're not using it for mailing lists etc, it will mean virtually 0 spam reports, and probably very high quality emails.

    I assume you will use it mostly for application generated emails.

    I'd say go for it.

    Thanked by 2sgheghele Erisa
  • sgheghelesgheghele Member
    edited February 2021

    @navinp said: I assume you will use it mostly for application generated emails.

    You got it :smile: but also normal e-mail, I mean, humans (2) writing to humans (many).

  • The description you wrote is exactly the email service I am offering, so I have experience with this.

    Email routing (normal human to human emails, and transactional emails).

    Try testing using a few tools like Mail-tester, to see if it lands in inbox or other corrections. Etc, have fun.

    Thanked by 1Erisa
  • ErisaErisa Member
    edited February 2021

    From my (limited) experience if the IP address of the server doesn't have any inherited bad reputation (You can check this on blacklists usually) then you'll be perfectly fine as long as you don't send spam or mailing lists.
    As mentioned by navinp you can use Mail-tester to check your setup and if it passes you should be set. I usually also do a basic test email to my own Gmail and Outlook addresses just to double check. (One time I did this when everything else seemed fine and it turned out the Outlook send got rejected because Microsoft had blacklisted the IP)

    If you are blacklisted beforehand then either hedge your bets trying to get off or try different IP addresses (I prefer cloud platforms for this since its easy to change IP, I currently use Hetzner Cloud)

    Thanked by 1sgheghele
  • WebProjectWebProject Host Rep, Veteran
    edited February 2021

    If you do setup everything correctly and don’t spam so you don’t get any issues. On some occasions you will need to contact Hotmail/Microsoft team as they do like blacklist IP without any evidence, we had such issue and requested Microsoft to provide evidence of SPAM, which they unable to provide and whitelisted IPs without any issues.

    Thanked by 2sgheghele Erisa
  • Hosting your own email server is fine so long as SPF, DKIM, DMARC records are properly set. Also, submit your IP address to dnswl (https://www.dnswl.org/) and ensure you're not on any blacklists.

    Thanked by 1sgheghele
  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited February 2021

    My opinion on the topic:

    I have no direct proof that the reputation of an IP address causes spam folder delivery with any major email provider, so long as you obtain a score of 10 with mail-tester.com (this means proper DNS, emails up to standards, content not setting off red flags). I will continue to hear that IP reputation relates to spam folder delivery at Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, etc. I still have not witnessed any conclusive evidence that cannot be described equally by "correlation does not imply causation."

    I am drowning in proof that IP reputation relates to rejection by the major providers, but rejection and spam folder delivery are not the same thing.

    Thanked by 1sgheghele
  • Nah, its really maybe just how deep is your pocket to get whitelisted on big ESP like google, ms, etc...

    Its not just about IP address or those mail/dns configs. But yes you should also set those but still it wont be 100% delivery. You will experience good delivery at start but sooner or later you will still see your mails hitting the spam box. Big players also does not consider those online/saas spam listing. They have their own. So it also checks your domain to their own spam list. If you are not on their whitelist then sooner or later your mail will go to spam box.

    There's really no 100% delivery solution.

    Thanked by 1sgheghele
  • Here's my solution to my email problems, and possibly, yours:

    1. Dovecot+postfix with mysql
    2. SMTP relay

    It's the cheapest way to get something reliable with "unlimited email accounts" (for what it's worth).

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    @cazrz said:
    Nah, its really maybe just how deep is your pocket to get whitelisted on big ESP like google, ms, etc...

    If anyone wants to give me a hint as to who to bribe for that btw, will kick back some money their way too.

    I've seen Hotmail IPs blocked by Gmail and vice versa, I'm not convinced that there is or isn't any under the table dealings between the big ones.

  • cazrzcazrz Member
    edited February 2021

    @jar said:

    @cazrz said:
    Nah, its really maybe just how deep is your pocket to get whitelisted on big ESP like google, ms, etc...

    If anyone wants to give me a hint as to who to bribe for that btw, will kick back some money their way too.

    I've seen Hotmail IPs blocked by Gmail and vice versa, I'm not convinced that there is or isn't any under the table dealings between the big ones.

    I think there are no dealings between competitors, but to customers "maybe" there is. Customers are the product, competitors aren't.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • I have set up my own email server. Initially sometimes despite all checks being passed and IP also not in any blacklist still email ends up in the spam folder. Over time it looks fine to me email gets delivered mostly. My setup was a bit complicated and is based on one email host + multiple domains so that was the main reason I believe I had issues in the start, if you want to set up just one domain-based server it might be easier to cater to most of the issues. Email content matters a lot, in my personal experience when I set up and test emails at Gmail all tests were passed including spamAssasin but still email ended up in the spam folder.

    Thanked by 1sgheghele
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