Re: Finding a replacement for my ISP's smtp server
On Tue, 29 Jul 2014 10:27:08 -0400
Jerry Stuckle <jstuckle@attglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Yes, I know Exim can be configured to do a lot. But I have yet to see
> where it is advantageous to run a MTA on a residential connection, and
> know of a lot of reasons why it's bad.
>
> I do run Exim on several servers (actually I have a friend who has
> helped set them up - I am NOT a Linux Admin). But every one of these
> servers is in a data center with static IP addresses.
>
> And the biggest advantage is I can access them from my laptop, ipad,
> smartphone or whatever - no matter where I am, with no changes to the
> email configuration. You can't do that when the MTA is in your home.
>
> And my outgoing mail doesn't get blocked because it's coming from a
> dynamic IP.
Nor does mine, because it isn't. I understand that it can be difficult
and expensive to get a static IP address in some parts of the USA, but
it isn't over here unless you demand to pay rock-bottom mass-market
prices. My own ISP will even allocate a small block of IPv4 addresses
*at* *no* *extra* *charge* if I can show that I have a use for them. I
don't, so one is enough. I know another ISP who will do that, if I
ever need to drop my current one, which is now owned by Vodafone. It's a
sort of semi-business account, without full business account features
but with a fixed address and no port blocking.
I see two main reasons for running an MTA, as I have for fifteen years
or so:
Brian's reason, in that I can see what happens to email that
disappears. I do a bit of professional IT work where that is useful,
but also my wife occasionally tells me that an email to/from one of her
friends hasn't got through, so what's wrong with our system then, and I
can look up the logs and confirm the problem isn't here. I have in the
past tried to get information from smarthost admins about email logs,
and on the whole have failed miserably. Once it's arrived at the
smarthost, there's no realistic way to tell what happened after that. If
you don't know which company to blame, with proof, you can't complain.
But if a client tells me that email to someone hasn't been working for a
day or so, I can connect home to my server and send an email from
there, reading the exim4 log in real time, and then do the same from a
VM on my laptop, from my client's network, to see if there's any
difference. That's solved a few problems.
Secondly, I (almost) have control of spam. I do virtually no content
checking, having wrestled with spamassassin for a while and decided
there was no way I could win. But I decide whether to risk false
positives that way, or to do basic tests on incoming mail and simply
refuse the transaction on failure. Nobody else loses my email for me.
And it works: spam has now escalated to 6-8 a day, but that's only in
the last couple of months. For years before that, it was 1-2 a day,
with 1500-3000 rejections. My record for rejections was over 12,000 in
one day. That email address at the top is valid and has been in daily
use, especially on Usenet, for sixteen years and my IP address has been
fixed for the same period. And I get seven spams a day in my inbox...
A lesser third reason is that because I do it, I know how to drive a
mail server. I've only used exim4 in that time, but similar principles
will apply to postfix or even the dreaded sendmail. I've looked after a
few versions of Exchange for other people, but that doesn't really
count.
I can see that in a few years' time I won't be allowed to do this, if
only because it takes more effort for my government to spy on me. But I
shall carry on for as long as I can, because it Works For Me (tm).
--
Joe
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