

Ask HN: ever had problem with outgoing email? - gcb

Question is about sharing hosting with spammers.<p>I just finished evaluating all the VPS providers based on price/resources/uptime for my closing launch... and when i thought i was done, a post on slashdot quoted my top option as "terrible reputation for hosting spammers and having a completely non-responsive abuse department" claiming it would impact mail out.<p>So, how realistic is that? Anyone ever had email blocked because of your hosting choice? I can think of reasons that would happen, but i'm curious about real anecdotes
======
thaumaturgy
It's not beyond the realm of possibility. We usually have one of our clients
impacted by this at least a couple of times a year, although those are all in
shared hosting environments IIRC.

However, some RBLs are extra aggressive, and some ISPs use things like
Barracuda spam firewalls which love to take advantage of the most aggressive
RBLs. If you host with a network that's got a reputation for hosting spammers,
you could find that your dedicated IP is included in a /24 on one of the RBLs.

Or, if your IP resolves to a hostname associated with the VPS provider, that
might get you flagged for spam.

It's impossible to say for sure without knowing exactly which provider you're
looking at.

I've been hosting a mail server on Linode for a couple of years now with not a
single instance of ending up on an RBL. A handful of my clients are hosting
with me now as well, including one who sends out a monthly newsletter to
around 500 subscribers (customers who have given him their email address
specifically to receive the newsletter). Linode's got a pretty good reputation
and when one of their other nodes attempted some ssh abuse against one of
mine, they responded quickly.

So don't host with sleazeballs and you should be fine.

~~~
gcb
You raise a very good point i was taking for granted

Reverse lookup.

Will add that to my table. Thanks

------
MattBearman
I'd recommend using a dedicated email provider instead of using your VPS.

I currently host <http://bugmuncher.com> with Linode, but use MailGun for
emails, on the strength of recommendations from HN users.

This way I don't have to be worried about the spam problem, as they take care
of that. And they have a free tier that will keep you going through the early
stages (200 emails per day)

~~~
gcb
If the costs of hosting at a spam-infested provider beats the clean one by
much, adding this layer would be a good idea. thanks

------
billpatrianakos
I don't think you have to worry much when you use a VPS. Any decent VPS
provider will give you a dedicated IP address, rDNS, and the ability to change
your host name. I'm pretty new to VPS but from what I understand the spam
problem is really only a problem with shared hosting, especially cheap shared
hosting. Even if I'm wrong I'm willing to bet if you went with a reputable
provider there shouldn't be any problems.

