On Fri, Nov 08, 2013 at 08:37:32AM -0500, William Herrin wrote:
On Sun, Nov 3, 2013 at 11:39 AM, <rwebb@ropeguru.com> wrote:
I am looking for some info on current practice for an email server and SMTP delivery. It has been a while since I have had to setup an email server and I have been tasked with setting up a small one for a friend. My question centers around the server sending outgoing email and the current practices requirements for other servers to accept email Things like rDNS, SPF records, etc...
Hi Robert,
Current best practices are: don't run your own email server unless you're willing to spend the ongoing time and effort it takes to keep up with the current solutions to the spam, hacking and abuse problems. Corollary: when you get bored of doing so for a tiny mail server, stop running it and buy a service.
and yet, at the IETF this week, in the technical plenary, a call to diffuse the target space by running your own services. much harder to have your mail scrapped from your servers than from your providers. /bill
Other than that, the _changes_ of note in the last decade are:
1. The blacklist aggregators and IP reputation services have changed so you have to find the new ones, 2. There are email whitelist services now, some free others for a nominal cost. Use them. 3. Phishing and spear phishing are relatively sophisticated now, so your spam solution has to deal reasonably with it. 4. Relay from and to an external address without changing the envelope sender no longer functions reliably due to things like SPF enforcement and no mail servers I've noticed have such a translator built in.
Regards, Bill Herrin
-- William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004