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Greetings,

I'm trying to understand the safest way to use SMTP. I'm considering purchasing a second virtual server mainly for email sending, on which I will set up PHPlist (a free open-source mailing program), so we have the freedom to send unlimited newsletters (...well, 10,000 per day at least, which requires a VPS rather than shared hosting).

Here's my current setup with a paid mass-mailing software: I have a website - let's call it MyHostedDomain.org. I send newsletters with the From / Reply To address as [email protected], which isn't being hosting by me but I have access to the email account.

Can I more or less safely set this up with an SMTP server on a VPS? i.e. send messages using [email protected] as the visible address, but having it all go through my VPS SMTP? I cannot authenticate it, right? Is this too risky a practice? Is my only hope to use an address with a domain on the VPS, i.e. [email protected]?

I already have a Reverse DNS record for the domain hosted on my current VPS. I also see other suggestions, like SenderID and DKIM. But with all these things combined, will this still work? I don't want to get blacklisted, but the good thing is this is a somewhat private list, and users opt-in to subscribe. So it's a self-made audience.

(If it makes you feel better, this is related to a non-profit activity, not some marketing scam...it's for a good cause, I assure you!)

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  • Ok, here's a follow-up thought: Since I want to preserve MyHostedDomain.org to the utmost -- it must be absolutely free of risk of (accidental) blacklisting, if I created a new domain just for sending emails out in bulk....and let's say, worse-case scenario, I get blacklisted....would this negative report affect all domains on the VPS? Or just the one sending the bulk mail? I obviously don't plan on any negative reports, but I am trying to understand all the risks here. Thanks!
    – Andy M
    Jan 13, 2011 at 4:34

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In addition to SenderID and DKIM, you should be marked as authorized to send mail for SomeoneElsesDomain.org via SPF. Even with all of these things, you are probably going to run in to trouble sooner rather than later. Sending bulk mail is an extremely tricky business.

I gave a presentation a few months ago that will help you out: https://entropystream.net/index.php/2010/10/19/delivering-the-mail/

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