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I want to host a mail infrastructure using a scalable service (like Nodejitsu or EC2 with ELB). The servers actually should have static IPs (I think) but the ELB would route the requests to the correct instance.

Now I wondered if I might run into blocklist issues. Any advice on setting this up?

We use a custom implemented SMTP (written in NodeJS) to tie in very tightly with our product. It does NOT have to be AWS/EC2, it was just a suggestion. But we would prefer a scalable cloud product like Nodejitsu that's very easy to set up.

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  • Are you trying to send mail or receive mail? Oct 21, 2012 at 18:37
  • Actually I need both, but receiving won't be much of a problem I guess since I have to do filtering/blocklisting myself.
    – user22711
    Oct 21, 2012 at 18:54

2 Answers 2

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AWS IP range is classified as dynamic, plus it is blocked by default, hence sending email from there is futile.

In Rackspace, you can setup revdns as well they got hosted mail service, if you need mailboxes.

For mail, you would need to use Rackspace, or maybe Send Grid, or just any other mail server, which is on email friendly ip range.

I have run myself into several issues with sending and especially receiving mail from AWS, HP Cloud, but the blockage of some sort was always in some different way. With Rackspace it works very good, that's because they have mail services.

If you really care about customers, you would not setup mail servers in AWS - but getting mail to AWS works pretty much OK - just like to any other server, so incoming mail works OK, however sending is not.

You can still rely mail to Rackspace node, - the 256MB would be able to send all your emails no issue.

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I want to say many systems limit emails from cloud systems such as Amazon EC2. Amazon does have http://aws.amazon.com/ses/ for sending email, where they do work to have it not blocked. If you use SPF, and DKIM it may provide enough authority to receiving SMTP servers that you may not need to use SES.

Update 1: You may also want to look into several service spefific feedback loops. Yahoo has http://feedbackloop.yahoo.net/, AOL has http://postmaster.aol.com/, MSN/hotmail has http://mail.live.com/mail/services.aspx. Gmail does not have such a feedback loop to my knowledge.

Update 2: Also be sure to comply with CAN-SPAM

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  • Unfortunately 3rd party providers are not an option (would be too expensive for our target email volume).
    – user22711
    Oct 21, 2012 at 18:05
  • Define 3rd party. Amazon could be considered 3rd party. Do you know what SPF and DKIM are? Oct 21, 2012 at 18:17
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    Yep, I know what SPF and DKIM are. With 3rd party providers I mean services that charge for email delivery like SES, PostageApp, Sendgrid, Postmark, etc...
    – user22711
    Oct 21, 2012 at 18:29
  • Amazon SES is very affordable, and way, way easier to implement than your own solution if your sending volume is < 1,000,000 messages/day. They handle bounces, complaints, abuse reports, etc., and will sign your emails with DKIM, and help you with all your DNS setup and maintenance. We used to do our own sending, but switching freed up time + infrastructure we didn't have. Oct 21, 2012 at 19:03
  • Well, we would potentially have a volume of over 1M mails per day.
    – user22711
    Oct 21, 2012 at 19:08

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