Post #1118690
2026-04-12 19:40 UTC
Replies (15)
-
@outofcontrol@phpc.social 2026-04-13 07:53
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz Happily hosting our own email server since around 1997. Definitely more difficult to get right these days. I also manage several MS365 business accounts for clients. Mostly none of our self-hosted email is blocked by MS or Google servers. I do have the power in MS365 to block on all sorts of fringe cases which could block chunks of self-hosted email, I also have the power to safe-list on those same rules all sorts of incoming email. 100% prefer managing self hosted email servers
-
@nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 2026-04-13 04:16
@Paul_Taylor Unfortunately widespread abuse by spammers, scammers, and people intent on destroying infrastructure have made mail filters complex and false positives a side effect. I personally wish it weren't so but some people are walking typing turds so that's what we all get.
-
@nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 2026-04-13 04:22
@Paul_Taylor I'd be willing to bet his system is being abused and he doesn't know it. I went through a period where we were often blocked by larger carriers, and it turned out it was happening because spammers had broke accounts by brute force then used them to spam. Adding fail2ban to stop the brute forcing combined with a filter that looked for e-mail on a single account coming from three or more nations on a 24 hour period and if that happened locked the account and forced a password change solved the issue.
-
@joost@freesewing.social 2026-04-13 04:24
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz I second all of this. It really is tragic how 'leaders' do not realize how much long term damage they are doing with these choices. Fortunately, the current US administration is so toxic that at long last people are starting to be open to the idea that maybe it's not the best idea to shackle oneself to US tech giants. Digital sovereignty is something you can advocate for without being laughed out of the room at least. As such, I feel more hopeful now than in a long while.
-
@Tak@gush.taks.garden 2026-04-13 04:25
@Paul_Taylor I have given up - I used to host my own mail, but google and microsoft have succeeded in corporate capture of the entire system (under the guise of "spam prevention") 😐
-
@anders@mastodon.online 2026-04-13 05:36
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz I am member of an email NGO called Fripost. We are enough members to get a reputation. I did have problems with our sympa services that arbitrarly get spam marked by the big companies.
-
@farbenstau@infosec.exchange 2026-04-13 06:43
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz Doesn't even have to be Linux, as long as the particular mail server software is standards-compliant. Heck, any of the *BSD's would do, for example.
-
@nanook@friendica.eskimo.com 2026-04-13 07:29
@Paul_Taylor If the OS underlying the mail server isn't secure, neither will the mail server be, if the mail server isn't you will get a negative reputation and experience the issues many here are complaining about.
-
@mason@partychickens.net 2026-04-12 23:32
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz A big part of the answer is teaching more folks to run their own email systems. There's a shameful tendency for tech people who should know better to warn people off running their own email servers, which makes it worse. I teach people to run their own email, and people generally love the freedom it gives them.
-
@dgb37@mathstodon.xyz 2026-04-12 20:00
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz At a "University" I refused to use their M$ "e-mail system" as it failed to be a bonā fidē e-mail system. My supervisor agreed with me that it was not an e-mail system as it did not operate using standard protocols. IIUC, M$ had an exclusivity clause that prevented any other e-mail system from operating within their TLD that did not already predate the contract with M$. Thus there was nothing to be done: use it or else!
-
@hakona@im.alstadheim.no 2026-04-15 19:59
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz Running my own email here as well, using my ISP for outbound relay, relying on their reverse-dns and reputation (which has had issues, but it's been good for a couple of years now). Mostly works well, but I've got one user with Outlook client, and i get DMARC reports from Enterprise Outlook *often*. I get spf pass, but dkim fail. Suspect it is on every mail that goes that route. 🧵
-
@helge@mastodon.social 2026-04-12 21:04
@Paul_Taylor I run a self hosted mail server. It's kinda hard to get right, but the requirements seem absolutely reasonable and you can fulfil them. I don't really see them abusing their market power there ... just yet. (I think they are just waiting for email to die the natural death)
-
@lluad@mastodon.ie 2026-04-12 21:57
@Paul_Taylor DMARC reports don’t tell you whether your mail went to spam or not. They tell you when your mail was not authenticated when it was received. There’s something to investigate there, but it may not be what you’re describing it as.
-
@addison@nothing-ever.works 2026-04-12 21:54
@Paul_Taylor@mathstodon.xyz would you mind trying to send a mail to my email at cispa.de? Should be very easy to find from my name, just don't want to get ingested by every mastodon account ever.
-
@Takiro@meow.social 2026-04-13 11:00
@Paul_Taylor Exactly my experience of running my own mail server for years. They make you jump through so many burning hoops just to accept your mails only to mark them as spam for not being from a handful of trusted domains (their billionaire buddies) anyway.