Running a Mail Server from Home and Potential Blacklisting

[#1]

Hello, I was speaking to a friend that raised some concerns about my plan to run a mail server from home. To quote him he said to me:
"It [mail] would be sent on port 25; now, understand that you sending back out to Hotmail might have to go through your ISP otherwise you're liable to be on a lot of 'dialup' or 'dynamic home user' blacklists simply for having a home account
and there's no way you can get off of them either, without your isp saying no, its a commercial ip or ip block
and they likely wouldn't do that unless you subscribed to such service
you may want a cheap virtual machine somewhere to relay your mail to you."

Now, I have a Static IP with Plusnet, will this still be an issue and is there any way I can get round it without routing my mail directly through Plusnet? I'd much rather do it myself? Also, as I'm trying to save money by not paying my web host, to use a virtual machine to do the relaying would rather defeat the object as i'd have to pay again 🙂
Thanks and Kind Regards,
plusbg.

[#2]

I used to run my own mail server, for several years. No issues sending to any address.
Make sure you set up an spf section in the dns.
These days Google looks after my email, spam filtering and no downtime (that I noticed anyway). And best of all it is FREE.

[#3]

I run my own mail server without issue.

[#4]

Since you have a fixed IP it won't be on any policy blocklists because these list only dynamic IPs.

[#5]

I'm fairly certain customers' static IP's will still be on the policy block lists.

[#6]

Mine's not on any of spamhaus' lists.

Quote

84.92.17.x is not listed in the SBL 84.92.17.x is not listed in the PBL 84.92.17.x is not listed in the XBL

The easiest solution is to use plusnet's mail server as a smart host, but this only work if you host your domain with plusnet too (if I remember correctly).
You also get the added bonus that all your mail is archived at GCHQ for free this way.

[#7]

Neither's mine now I look at it. Sure I'd seen them listed in the past though
Relaying from non Plusnet-hosted domains is allowed.

[#8]

neither static IP's of mine were blacklisted.

[#9]

Thank you everyone 🙂
The people that say that they haven't had any issues with managing their own mail server -> How long have you been "getting away with it" without any issue of blacklisting etc? Thanks Bob for your input to, i've read a lot of interesting posts that you have made whilst contributing to topics - do you have any hints or tips to add, or anybody else for that matter?
Thanks again everybody,
plusbg.

[#10]

Have you thought about how you handle incoming mail?  You may benefit from setting up a secondary MX server somewhere (or paying a provider to do this for you) to make sure that email isn't lost when/if your broadband is down.

[#11]

I ran a mail server for about 5 years, then I "outsourced it" and when my mail became over 1Gb I moved it to Google, where it is/was free and I can have loads more for free.
The issues I had were backup mx's and cost of running a "real" server (I had an Compaq server retired from work, which eat power and was very noisy so it is in the attic)

[#12]

Quote from: plusbg

How long have you been "getting away with it" without any issue of blacklisting etc?

Running a mail server is trivial, but running a secure mail server is another matter. If your mail server is secure and free from vulnerabilities and those using it do not have compromised machines and or accounts then in theory you should never get blacklisted. But it only takes one rouge client account or someone hijacking your server and you'll be blacklisted. Which may have adverse effects for PN and other users within the IP block.

[#13]

Quote from: plusbg

Thanks Bob for your input to, i've read a lot of interesting posts that you have made whilst contributing to topics - do you have any hints or tips to add, or anybody else for that matter?

I guess that depends on what you're hoping to achieve by running your own mail server? If it's strictly a cost saving exercise, then I strongly suspect you'll find the time spent staying on top of it will outweigh the modest/zero cost of an alternative. If it's to allow a greater degree of control over your mail, then similarly, you can probably find a solution that offers server-like control over things without having to worry about the upkeep.
If it's for self-learning/something to do as a hobby though, then I'd say go for it.