I set up a VPS to use mailman to send out a newsletter for a community organisation.

Ransom IT http://ransomit.com.au/ is my host. They are one of the cheaper options if you want your server to be located in Australia. I haven't noticed any problems, though sending a monthly newsletter doesn't take much resources. When I signed up their ToS had a clause about no bulk mail, however I contacted them and they said it was a no spam policy and they are OK with opt-in newsletters. It looks like they've since revised the ToS to make that clear.

I use Gandi https://www.gandi.net/en for DNS. Reputable, low cost, supports two factor authentication, has an API if you ever want to automate anything.

Let's Encrypt worked for me for HTTPS certificates.

Mail Tester http://www.mail-tester.com/ was very useful when I was first checking to make sure I had all the anti-spam features set up correctly.

It was my first time setting up a mail server. I found the Ars Technica guide extremely useful:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/how-to-run-your-own-e-mail-server-with-your-own-domain-part-1/
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/taking-e-mail-back-part-2-arming-your-server-with-postfix-dovecot/
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/taking-e-mail-back-part-3-fortifying-your-box-against-spammers/
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/taking-e-mail-back-part-4-the-finale-with-webmail-everything-after/

The guide is a few years old now, but AFAIK it is still worth reading. Email hasn't fundamentally changed in the last 3 years.

I use mailman https://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/index.html to manage mailing lists. It took a while to get it configured nicely, the default settings tend to mangle mail in a way that isn't compatible with modern anti-spam features.

Cheers,

Peter

On 23 September 2017 at 04:56, Wen Lin via luv-main <luv-main@luv.asn.au> wrote:

One of the associations I'm in (besides LUV) have been experiencing difficulties sending bulk emails to members on a monthly basis (for announcements, newsletters purposes). This is because when you are trying to send bulk emails via your free web mail account (in this case, GMail), there is a limit imposed by Google (or any other webmail service providers) on the number of email addresses we can mail out to, within a period of time - and this limit can get ever stricter as time goes by. So the whole mailout process becomes unmanageable after a while.

While the Ctte is looking into various alternatives, including several of the 3rd party mail services / transactional mail services in the market, I am offering them another option: Setup a SMTP mail server (e.g. Postfix) on a VPS hosted by a web hosting company, and handle the whole bulk mailout ourselves. I am willing to help them setting up a VPS, hardening the Linux, installing & configuring all the mail software, etc, and then take care of the regular maintenance.

For VPS hosting service - I had looked at one hostwinds.com (Editor's Choice of au.pcmag.com 2017) (~ US$ 14 / mth). Will check out others to compare - basically I'm after a reasonably priced and reputable VPS web hosting company. I would like to hear any recommendation, or any first-hand experience dealing with any particular web hosting company - which I'm sure many of LUV members certainly have.

For domain name (.org.au) - About $48 for 2 years. Any reputable Domain Registrar that you would recommend?

For SSL Certificate - I can install one from Let's Encrypt, which will be free.

Any major cost/charges that I have missed?

I also intend to follow all the bulk mail best practices, SPF/DKIM settings, MX records, security measures, email etiquette, etc, to make sure that our organisation normal notification/newsletter to our members, would not be treated as SPAM.

The 3rd party mail service providers that I had found so far: MailChimp, MailJet, Amazon-SES, SendGrid, MailGun (and many others).

Did lots of google searches, trying to compare (Advantages & Disadvantages) between managing own SMTP mail server and using 3rd party mail services. The results were mix and varied.

I myself certainly have much more faith in opting for a self-managed mail server solution over the commercial mail service ones.

Some of the advantages:
Have full control over most aspect of the mailing process. More flexible. Not constraint by the ever-changing rules imposed by 3rd party mail services.
Using all free & open source software - have all the freedom, and can tap into the large FOSS Community out there for various kinds of help and support.
Cost-wise, the mail server option is generally on the lower end of the price spectrum, as compared to many of the 3rd party mail services in the market.
No doubt the own mail server option would involve more work, more time to manage the whole thing - but I'm quite happy to take up this challenge, and to learn a lot from this hands-on experience.
I would be delighted if any of you who are experienced in managing a linux-based mail server can kindly share with us some more real-life examples and hands-on experiences - so that I can gather more solid evidence & cases, hopefully to strengthen my case for a self-managed mail server solution.

Some points that I had read somewhere that I would like to quote below to seek your comment:

"What a commercial mailing list operator does, and which you cannot easily replicate, is build and maintain a reputation as a responsible and reputable source of bulk email. If you are not going to be getting into that, perhaps you could benefit from getting help from a commercial mailer. ...

Abuse handling, bounce handling etc are important to get right, but until you have significant experience, your reputation is going to remain zero, if not negative (which is a reasonable starting point for unknown domains in this day and age). A lot of the reputation-based stuff like SPF, DKIM etc will help only if you have a reputation to defend. On the other hand, it does send the right signals to somebody who is deciding on whether or not a sender is to be treated as reputable (or rather, their absence is not a good sign; neither, in my book, is anything to suggest you are using homegrown and/or prerelease software to send email). ..."

I also read somewhere which seemed to point to a 3rd option: Still use own mail server, but direct the outbound mails to an external Mail Relay service. What do you think?

When this whole project (if accepted by my Ctte) is done and implemented successfully, I intend to share my experience in this whole process, in one of LUV talks.

In the mean time, I have a lot of work to do, and lots to learn ...

Cheers,
Wen

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