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How do I send out automated emails from my new website without being marked as a spammer?

realpseudonym — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:21:47 -0800

I have an idea for yet another hairbrained social networking website (which paradoxically might hit it big :-) ). I've coded most of it up on a linux server using apache, php, mysql at softlayer.com. The hostname is registered at godaddy (which I can change if desirable). What's the minimum I need to do the following (I'd rather work on the website application logic and learn as little as possible about mail server administration for now): 1) Send automated emails using php code from that domain to users (e.g. when their friend posts a picture).
2) Receive support emails at that domain (probably just one email address for the time being).
3) Most importantly: avoid being marked as a spammer.

I think getting an email address at godaddy is the easiest way to go, but I am unsure if it would achieve my goal of not being marked as a spammer. Also, I think the 250 included smtp emails a day would be more than enough for the time being, but it doesn't seem to be a good solution for the longer term.

I'm pretty sure I could set up mail stuff on my server, but I'd rather not if I don't have to.

Does my dream email software exist?

justkevin — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:21:32 -0800

I've been using Outlook for years, but I'm looking for a better solution to manage my email accounts and massive archive of messages. I have literally hundreds of thousands of email messages going back for years in Outlook. I have a half dozen email accounts which receive 1000+ emails a day (mostly spam, of course). Outlook has been pretty good to me, but I'm wondering if there's a better option. Here are my must-have requirements:

Keep all my existing emails, so a new solution must be able import them somehow;
Support multiple POP and IMAP accounts;
Capability to create rules to manage emails;
I need a robust, flexible spam control system;
Can't be outrageously expensive (Like thousands of dollars)

Here are some things that I really want, but not dealbreakers:

A server based solution so I could access all my emails from laptop, workstation or even on the road. Also, I wouldn't have the headache of migrating emails every time I upgrade (I do have unix servers I could install software on);
Some sort of calendar system as well, like Outlook;
Used MySQL for its database (so I could write my own tools);
Great user interface.

Stop the Spam!

jontyjago — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 14:38:36 -0800

I am getting spam to addresses picked up from a PHP mail script - can I stop this? I have built a small site for a Film Society which has three "contact us " style pages, with a simple form and a send button. The send button uses the PHP Mail function to send an email with the question or comment to an email address (depending on the page) which is stored in a MySQL table and is retrieved before the Mail function is called.

The email addresses in question are receiving spam which looks to have come from the website (ie sent through the form) but infact contains nonsense and spam-like messages. It looks to be automated, so not somebody typing stuff in manually.

Firstly, how is this being done when the email address is only stored server side and secondly, is there anything I can do to stop it?

Open source e-mail scalability

id — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:38:21 -0800

I am responsible for setting up and maintaining a mail server for small web-hosting type business. We currently host about 75 domains, around 100 mailboxes and due to the efforts of our sales team, we are wanting to get ready for some great increases in those numbers. I am worried about my current configuration and ease of administration. More importantly (well, at least to the customers) is email deliverability -- it seems that messages delivered to some big players are being marked as SPAM or disappearing altogether. I am asking for insight and advice on 1) if my current choice of software/configuration is a good match for this situation and 2) if there any additional measures I might take to ensure email deliverability? Here is an overview of our current setup:

* We lease servers at ev1servers.net.
* The servers are running RHEL ES3.
* We chose to use Postfix and have it configured to support virtual users and domains mapped in MySQL tables. The reference I used to configure this setup is located here. We initially chose Postfix over qmail because it was open and over sendmail because the config files are actually readable.
* I have added in SQLGrey grey-listing for Postfix to provide a simple level of SPAM detection for our users. We are not wanting to deal with the customer service and higher box loads of mail scanning at this time. We might choose to use a 3rd party vendor to do this as needed.
* Messages are delivered locally via maildrop in maildir format.
* Courier IMAP is running to support both IMAP and POP access to the mailboxes.
* Postfix Admin was setup for easy mailbox administration.

For deliverabilty, I have/am taking the following steps:

* I have verified that our reverse IP records are correct
* I have created SPF records for all of the domains
* I have verified that our server is not listed in any blacklists (great scanner at dnsstuff.com)
* I have started to install DomainKeys for Postfix

In doing all of that, I have found that our IP is listed in the BlarsBL. Do I need to be concerned about this rogue list? The IP was there before I even began to setup the box.

I have not yet been able to get DomainKeys to work with Postfix. It was during my configuration attempts that I started to question this setup and wondered if this was the best setup for our situation.. this inquiry has lead to this posting.

In a perfect world, I would have an email server that

* is easy to administer,
* supports automated mailbox setup/removal (currently I can just insert rows into my tables and the mailbox setup is done)
* supports current technologies, like grey-listing, DomainKeys, etc
* is secure
* makes the best use of system resources -- I want to get the "best bang for the buck"

So what do you think? Should I stick with this setup and life will be grand? I am open to something new AND even taking the time to learn a new setup. If I do need to switch to something different, my only concern would be the ability to migrate existing mailboxes and messages over to the new setup.

Are there any other technologies or configurations that I need to implement to support the best deliverabilty rates?

[question posted for a 'friend']