Re: sending mail via a script

[Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net>]

Hi Mick,

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 10:39:57PM +0100, mick crane wrote:
>  well when I became aware of all this stuff, I thought this is great,
> everybody can connect and do what they like, if of course following
> protocols.
> But you can't do that can you ? you have to connect through a service
> provider.

In theory any host in the Internet can talk to any other host on the
Internet because that is what an internetwork is.

In practice some hosts on the Internet do not want to be talked to
by just anyone for any reason. So, firewalls, application
firewalls, blocklists and other restrictions in the name of
security. An unfortunate reality of the centralisation of email
services into just a handful of very large providers is that those
providers in practice dictate stricter rules for who can talk to
them.

IP netblocks that are known to be assigned to end users (as opposed
to hosting providers) are generally outright blocked or distrusted
to a degree which makes it difficult for them to be used to send
email to everyone that one might want to correspond with.

On the other hand, hosting services have got a lot cheaper over the
years to the point where one can rent a virtual server at a decent
provider for not a lot of money, and as long as one complies with
modern email practices one should not generally have much of a
problem.

Very few people wish to go to this extent, but if you are someone
who wanted to do it at home then doing it on a rented server instead
is not much more effort. Running your own mail service is still
within reach, just not from your own home in most cases.

If intending to do this I would however caution against using the
very cheapest of providers, some of which come in at just a few Euro
per month. These providers do not have functioning abuse departments
and as a result are widely blocked for the misdeeds of their
customers. As someone who operates in this space I will not name any
providers, but if it seems too cheap to be true then it probably is.

Cheers,
Andy