Setting up an email server in 2020 with OpenSMTPD and Dovecot

https://prefet.ch/blog/2020/email-server/

30 3 6 years ago

andreicek• 6 years ago

Very nice read. But I’m a bit confused with the following:

Because these companies probably use AI-powered account-aware filters, you should not put anything identifiable in the test email. For example, if your name is "John Smith", do not put "John" nor "Smith" in the message, and do not send it from an addres like john.smith@example.com.

Why is this so? Is this only for the first email?

microtherion2• 6 years ago

I found this intriguing as well. Two possible reasons:

* If your name is associated with some preexisting score, this might influence the chances of the mail getting accepted or rejected.

* Conversely the mail gets rejected, this might ding your reputation for other mail you send in the future.

microtherion2• 6 years ago

After a number of amateurish attempts at setting up a personal e-mail server over the years, I ended up resorting to running a poste (https://poste.io) docker container, which has worked great so far.

But I found the section about SPF/DKIM/MARC still very useful, and wish there were even more information about this. Testing whether e-mail is sendable or receivable is pretty easy. Understanding these scores is much harder (presumably because, if this were easily testable, it would also be easily gameable).

Setting up an email server in 2020 with OpenSMTPD and Dovecot

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