MS Exchange 2010 - smarthost suggestions

Ol!ver · 26 Apr 2012 at 01:34

I've set up an Exchange server in a VM on my home server, just because I can really. The problem I am having is that sent emails are not always being delivered, presumably do to whitelisting and Sky not handling reverse DNS lookups properly, leaving receiving servers thinking I'm a spambot.

My question is thus: does anyone have any recommendations for a smart host? Prefer free, obviously, but would pay a reasonable fee should I need to.

I was going to use Google's SMTP servers, but they alter the sending email address these days apparently.

Any ideas?

PistolPete · 26 Apr 2012 at 14:30

Your ISP?? They shouldn't reject if you authenticate to them.

Ol!ver · 26 Apr 2012 at 14:54

PistolPete said:
Your ISP?? They shouldn't reject if you authenticate to them.

They replace the sending address.

tribz · 26 Apr 2012 at 15:30

Ol!ver said:
They replace the sending address.

I know that you've said Google mail does that but who actually provides your internet connection? They should have an SMTP server.

Also, you do have any domains? You can quite often send authenticated email from domain hosting providers.

Ol!ver · 26 Apr 2012 at 16:31

tribz said:
I know that you've said Google mail does that but who actually provides your internet connection? They should have an SMTP server.

Also, you do have any domains? You can quite often send authenticated email from domain hosting providers.

I'm with Sky, and they do the same apparently.

The domain name is just that, a domain, with the site hosted on my own server. I assume that the registrar doesn't offer an SMTP server unless they host everything, but I'll check.

Harpss1ngh · 22 May 2012 at 23:52

If you have a domain name, why don't you point the MX record of the domain's DNS record to your mail server? If you don't have a static external ip you can use a dynamic dns such as from no-ip.info on your server or router, then you can point your domain MX record to your server and then configure an MX record on your exchange server back to the public DNS server of your hosting provider or your ISP. However, if you already host a web site on your server you just need to point the MX record as well as the A record if people can already access your website URL externally.

Or does the hosting site of your domain provide email or webmail? You can then relay authenticated mail to their SMTP address if so. For example, a domain registered with 1and1 which provides email, you can point your exchange server to auth.smtp.1and1.co.uk, which I have successfully done using the SMTP connector in exchange.