I've had trouble running my own SMTP servers in the past. Large ISPs (AOL is a good example) don't always take mail from small unknown servers.

If I run my own SMTP server at linode.com, will it work well in the real world?

Ideally, I'd like to be able to take my SMTP server's email and feed it to a larger SMTP server that belongs to the ISP. If that's not possible, it would be nice to hear from users that running your own mail system does, in fact, actually work when you send mail to AOL and other large ISPs.

Thanks...

I have been running my own mail server on Linode.com for almost 1 year with no issues like that which you describe. Previous to that, I ran my mail server on a customer DSL line and also had no problems.

In short, I don't think that you should worry about it ...

I'm running two SMTP servers on Linodes, one for my employer on a Linode 64, and a personal server on a 128. Neither has had problems.

It is worth your trouble to set your server up to use SSL and SMTP AUTH on port 465. This eliminates the need to use ugly hacks like POP-before-SMTP, and also gets around the port 25 blocks that some cable and DSL providers have put into place.

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Bus error (passengers dumped)

Thanks to both of you guys for your answer. Maybe my old server was on a block that had spam servers on it, or something like that. In any event, AOL would just toss email without giving me any notice at all.

At first, I'm just going to forward my vanity domain to a pop account from my ISP -- nothing fancy. I just need something I can point the MX record at.

I would like to get an SMTP server up that can do authentication, so I can roam with my laptop, though.

There are some RBLs out there that maintain lists of known dial/dsl IP addresses, since the vast majority of the time mail comes from such IP addresses, it's from virus/trojan infected machines that have been turned into spam relays. Only a small fraction of them are people trying to legitimately run their own mail server.

As a result, if you have an IP whose reverse-DNS resolves to something that looks like a generic home line, it's best to relay through your ISP's SMTP server. The linode IP ranges are probably pretty safe, but it certainly doesn't hurt to set your own custom reverse-DNS to something that is decidedly not a dialup/dsl sort of generic hostname. :)

I've had custom reverse-DNS on my static IP's at home for quite some time, but as a 'just in case', I've set all of my outbound mail to relay through my linode, and have had no problems.

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Ed/Bones.