Your own email server, anyone have one?

[Kev Williams]

I've had an ongoing problem for over a year now with my outgoing email getting bounced as spam. My domain server has me on a shared IP account, and a bad apple has caused my ("our") IP address to be listed on Spamcop and every other spam police setup. My server company's 1 of 2 remedies is for me to forward bounce notices to them and they will contact my mail recipient(s) and ask them to un-blacklist my email address. Whoopee, I can, and do, do that myself. Problem is, I only get about 1 bounce notice for every 20 bounces, and un-blacklisting doesn't seem to work anyway. Their 2nd remedy is for me to pay for a separate gmail account; they're in cahoots with Google because of this problem. I have enough Google intrusion in my life and refuse to pay for more.

I could change hosts, but the thought of moving my domain to another host makes me cringe...

I've done a little research on just setting up my own email server. Found a few of how-to web pages & programs, but it's a bit confusing, lots of software and other options...

Just wondering if anyone has done this? My needs are simple, I have no employees, I've used an email program for years I really like called OEClassic, which nicely emulates OE on newer computers. I've never done IMAP and don't want or need to...

TIA for any suggestions! :)

[glenn bradley]

Is this a name-brand provider? They should move you to another address space without issue. If it is a reseller or a localized provider things get prickly. They only have so much space and if small enough this space collapses into a single appearance at the parent. This means that even if they give you a dedicated address it may come from a block of space that is subject to compromise. Your provider is ultimately responsible for providing you service no matter how basic the agreement. If they stink, change.

It incenses me when I see people being held hostage by their provider. We put a lot of work in early on to make sure things were portable and unrestricted. Obviously the past couple decades of mad commercial use have strained that model. Big bucks spent lobbying have broken the FCC which leads to even greater abuse. As with insurance policies, your best bet is to never buy anything that isn't open ended and change anytime the provider does not meet your expectations; speak with your wallet. . . . . Ooops, I forgot to raise the "rant on" flag. I just lost control of myself :D.

[Doug Garson]

Since when do you have to pay for a Gmail account? I thought they were free.

[Mike Henderson]

You need a provider who does a better job of managing their email systems. For example, the provider I'm on only allows you to send email to 100 different email addresses per hour. Keeps spammers out.

Even if you send email to a group of people, you can send 100 per hour.

And changing your provider should not be a problem. Most providers will bend over backwards to move you since they will be getting your business.

Mike

[Just FYI, I use Dreamhost (www.dreamhost.com)]

[Kev Williams]

@gmail.com accounts are free, @your-domain.com accounts via G-Suite, aren't ;)

Excerpt from an email from my 'reputable' host back in early October:

...Sometimes, on Shared hosting where many customers use the same email servers, they get detected as contributing to spam and unnecessarily get blacklisted by a few recipient email servers and RBLs. We do have a system in place that monitors our mailout server IPs for its reputation at RBLs that sends out reports periodically. Our Network Operations team rotates the blocked IPs automatically and that should resolve any blocks our servers may have.

The 'our team rotates blocked IP's automatically' sounded promising, but my IP address hasn't changed yet, and is the same as 2 years ago...

[Frank Hagan]

Setting up your own on a VPS or server as a mail server is possible, but you still have the issue of blacklists and petitioning them to delist you. And it's a pretty technical configuration to set up and some ongoing maintenance. And MicroSoft email services (outlook, hotmail, etc.), Yahoo and AOL email services use their own filtering that will discard your email before it gets to the recipient without even telling you.

A better solution might be a commercial email host like Rackspace, Intermedia, etc. They handle all the server set up and protecting the IP address from the blacklists. If you do high volume, then SendGrid might be appropriate.

[Brian Elfert]

I have my own email domain through Google Apps/Gsuite/Google Workspace. It is a free 10 user account that is grandfathered in. No issues with email being blocked with Google.

[roger wiegand]

I've been using GSuite to host my domain email and it has not run into any issues so far. At my last company we used Rackspace and the service and support was phenomenal. We had a dedicated server there. It didn't really occur to me to see whether they offer a service suitable for individuals, having a dedicated server was fairly expensive.

[Jim Becker]

The problem with having your own email service if you are on residential Internet service is that it may not be permitted per their TOS and some ports may not be available for normal function. That track was taken a few years ago to help reduce spam and bots because it was unfortunately common for "personal services" to be compromised. If you're not server savvy, stuff happens and even really good administrators sometimes still suffer through their systems getting cracked/infected.

Have you tried to get your current provider to assign you to a different IP address in their shared infrastructure?

[Dave Mills]

If your host is GoDaddy, I can say I fought that problem for a couple years and finally decided to switch hosting services because of it. They host a ton of things, and apparently some of them tend to generate spam and take down the rest of the good guys.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I agree with the responses above. Switch host providers. Don't go with the cheap host providers that are heavily advertised and conveniently show up in the "best of" lists. A good majority of those hosts over-sell their server space and have regular problems with spam and server uptime. Hosting your own email server will require more maintenance then you want to do. A good host provider will make it easy for you to move your files to their server and you change your DNS settings in your Domain Registry and you are good to go and you will be back to having reliable email and web site.

[Keith Westfall]

Not sure if this is the same thing... I have used a host: HOVER.COM (started as twocows) for about 25 plus years. It's a mail forwarder service, but I believe you can host through them as well (I really don't understand how it all work apparently) but their spam control is really good, at least it seems to be. One of the things I have really liked about them over the years, is when ever I change providers, I keep my same email - had the same one for the whole time I have been with them. Lots of options to chose your email name. They have a webmail as well if you want to do it all there.

Think I have most of that right, just a happy camper since I signed up with them...

[Chris Fairbanks]

I've had an ongoing problem for over a year now with my outgoing email getting bounced as spam. My domain server has me on a shared IP account, and a bad apple has caused my ("our") IP address to be listed on Spamcop and every other spam police setup. My server company's 1 of 2 remedies is for me to forward bounce notices to them and they will contact my mail recipient(s) and ask them to un-blacklist my email address. Whoopee, I can, and do, do that myself. Problem is, I only get about 1 bounce notice for every 20 bounces, and un-blacklisting doesn't seem to work anyway. Their 2nd remedy is for me to pay for a separate gmail account; they're in cahoots with Google because of this problem. I have enough Google intrusion in my life and refuse to pay for more.

I could change hosts, but the thought of moving my domain to another host makes me cringe...

I've done a little research on just setting up my own email server. Found a few of how-to web pages & programs, but it's a bit confusing, lots of software and other options...

Just wondering if anyone has done this? My needs are simple, I have no employees, I've used an email program for years I really like called OEClassic, which nicely emulates OE on newer computers. I've never done IMAP and don't want or need to...

TIA for any suggestions! :)
Kev I have run my own server for two decades+. I went the easy path last time I upgraded my server and installed ISPconfig 3 which is an open source cPanel type server management. It has a nice web interface to manage websites, email, databases, etc and saves me a bunch of time on the CLI. If you don’t have a moderate Linux back group though managing your own server can be a bear. PM me if you want to catch up offline and I can go into further detail.

[Alan Rutherford]

I managed the web site for a small non-profit for several years with GoDaddy as ISP. I can't remember GoDaddy's names for the type of system they had but initially they paid a little more and had, in effect, their own private server for web site and email. No problems. Then they saved a few bucks by switching to a shared system, also with GoDaddy. If anybody sharing that system got blacklisted, so did everybody else. Fortunately we were parting ways and I never had to deal with it.

I have a site and email hosted by Earthlink and have no problems although both have been under-utilized since I retired several years ago.

[Kev Williams]

From what I'm reading (and thanks!), sounds like I may take the easy G-Suite route. My ISP is Comcast/Infinity and my current domain host is iPage. I understand all their email, ftp and hosting interfaces so I'd rather not do a total change and have to learn another host's protocols... as I said above, iPage is in cahoots with Google, so moving my email to G-Suite is supposedly just a matter of answering a few questions and coughing up $72 a year. I have enough trouble keeping the 9 computers in this place running smoothly, so I'm looking for 'easy', and it sounds like babysitting a server, isn't. ;)

thanks again all :)

[Kev Williams]

This is getting frustrating...

Moving to G-suite---- FAIL!

What a PIA--best I can tell I'll essentially be changing registrars (that's okay) and moving my entire domain to Google (NOT okay), and I'll lose my unlimited email address capability; every email address I'm currently using will cost $6 per month EACH. I have like 10 addresses in play, which aren't worth $60 a month-! -on top of the other fees...

SO-- any host suggestions?


Mike Henderson: ...the provider I'm on only allows you to send email to 100 different email addresses per hour. Keeps spammers out.
--sounds like a good idea... :)

[Mike Henderson]

I use Dreamhost. I haven't priced them against others recently but I'm satisfied with what I pay. I can host (essentially) as many domains as I want (I just checked - I have 10 domains but a few point to the same place) and I have unlimited email addresses. I don't think I have any limits on storage or bandwidth - if there are limits I'm way below them.

They provide reasonable support. Haven't had to use it much because my websites are pretty simple. I'm pretty sure they'll help you move to their servers.

Mike

[The reason for some of the domains are names that are close to a name that my wife uses for her domain. I just point the duplicates to the same place as the "actual" domain. So if you misspell the domain name, you still get to the same place. I pay an annual fee for those duplicates but it's not much. When I set all this up, I was probably too cautious.]

[Jim Becker]

I use MyHosting.com. Ten addresses per domain are supported in the subscription.

[Bill Carey]

I've used 1&1 Ionos since 2007. Multiple web sites, I think a thousand emails available, of which I've used 60 or 70, great support, and an easy to use dashboard. When I signed up it was 8/month, now I pay 14/month.

[Kev Williams]

Thanks again all for the replies :)

Shortly after my last post a customer called and asked 'how's it goin'?' He got an ear-full! ;) Then he told me he's used Bluehost for several years with no issues, and Bluehost is highly ranked in the best-of ads. So I pulled the trigger...

As I suspected, another PIA- After paying for 3 years of service I get to the "choose your email host!" page, which was pick Google or Microsoft-- WHAT? I actually went to their live chat and asked for my money back. But turns out access to their own web mail service was buried in the 'advanced' features, which was pointed out NOWHERE on the choose-email page. Wasn't too bad after that, and I'm mostly done I think. Don't know when the 'propogation' is supposed to happen but nothing yet. One nice thing is Bluehost uses the same Roundcube webmail program iPage does so the email process was pretty easy. Hoping everything else just 'happens' ;)

If my email don't bounce off half my customer's email servers after this, it'll all be worth it...

[Frank Hagan]

I think you'll find BlueHost about equal to iPage - they are both owned by Endurance International Group (EIG). Your email server could be the same one you were on with iPage, although often they will move you to a new server when you switch to one of their other companies. I hope it works out for you and your experience is better with the company this time around. They own 80+ hosting companies so if you get fed up with them, search for a listing of all the hosting companies they own so you can pick someone else.

Getting your email to flow to Google's G Suite only requires you to change the MX ("mail exchange") records at your domain registrar. You change them, and email starts going to the new mailbox. It is more difficult if you have a lot of stored email to transfer over, and I recommend people pay to have that done.

I don't have any affiliation with these folks, but some hosting companies I like and have used are KnownHost, MDD Hosting, and Hawkhost.

[Frank Hagan]

Also, once your site is up and running on the new service, you can check to see if your domain and/or IP address are on blacklists. Go to mxtoolbox.com and click "Blacklists" in the menu bar. Enter your domain name in the space provided and click the "Blacklist check" button to see if you are on any blacklists. If you are, it doesn't mean none of your email will go through. But if you are on a few of them, chances are you are also on the proprietary ones that the big email folks like Google, Outlook (MS) or Yahoo use.