Getting IP suitable for email server

Mikkel Rev

2/28/24, 9:23 PM

I am trying to use a VPS to host an email server using postfix. OpenDKIM and certbot was used to get DomainKeys and TLS. The data center setup reverse DNS. In case it matters, the IP is 188.68.231.119. It appears it is not on any of the public IP address blacklists. However, hotmail and gmail refuse to post it in the inbox of receivers. Gmail doesn't give me a reason, but my emails bounce when I send to hotmail and I am told it is because they have some private blacklist of IP addresses that it refuses to deliver email from. I have been through 3 VPS providers, and there are similar problems with all.

What's a robust enough way to get server that is capable of delivering the mail?

1 + 4

hosting

email-server

Jaromanda X

2/28/24, 10:53 PM

the IP address is irrelevant if your sending email address is on a `private blacklist of email addresses` - you need to find why your sending email address is blacklisted

Massimo

2/28/24, 11:02 PM

You don't mention SPF. Did you set it up properly?

anx

3/1/24, 1:21 AM

What sort of vetting did the VPS provider do on your organisation before welcoming you as a "send whatever traffic you want" customer? You are generally going to be treated better if the jurisdiction and policies of your providers (all of them: IP space, hosting, DNS, TLD) are known or expected to assist in combating abuse.

anx

3/1/24, 1:28 AM

Both Google and Microsoft do share some degree of reasoning and instructions when they reject messages. Do work through those lists, it will help spot configuration mistakes. E.g. when I lookup the AAAA record for the host mentioned in the spf TXT record for the reverse name.. I see a link-local (fe80::/10) address. That is probably not the address you are using to talk to Google and Microsoft.

Score:0

Server

RDX

3/4/24, 11:11 AM

I use AWS for my mailserver: my mail is accepted everywhere, but you need some skill to set up things right.

Basically you need to get an IP (and check that it is not already blacklisted) and configure the hostname, mx and A record for the mailserver, the reverse dns for your IP should be equal to the hostname.

You should also use all the security/antispam features like dkim, spf.

Of course you should not send spam! So if you're not a spammer check for configuration errors that would allow everyone to send mail (spam) through your server, etc...

To strictly answer your question I think you should go to some major providers like AWS. But I think you should ask yourself if you really want to (and can) do it by yourself.

If you want there is a very well written tutorial at https://workaround.org.

+ 0

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Getting IP suitable for email server

Post an answer

Most people don’t grasp that asking a lot of questions unlocks learning and improves interpersonal bonding. In Alison’s studies, for example, though people could accurately recall how many questions had been asked in their conversations, they didn’t intuit the link between questions and liking. Across four studies, in which participants were engaged in conversations themselves or read transcripts of others’ conversations, people tended not to realize that question asking would influence—or had influenced—the level of amity between the conversationalists.