Sending mail from your server
Mail is allowed. Spam is not, and the line between a legitimate mail server and a blocklisted one is mostly configuration.
Tell us first
Planning to run a mail server? Mention it when you order or open a ticket. It costs nothing, it takes a minute, and it prevents a new machine suddenly pushing mail from looking exactly like a compromised one.
The three records
- Reverse DNS on the sending address, pointing at a hostname that resolves back to it. Ask us — the PTR lives on our side. See IP addresses and reverse DNS.
- SPF listing the addresses allowed to send for your domain.
- DKIM signing, with the public key in DNS.
Add DMARC once those three agree with each other. Large receivers increasingly treat mail without them as suspicious by default.
Do not be an open relay
Authenticate every sender. An open relay is found by scanners within hours and your address ends up on blocklists you will spend weeks getting off. The same goes for a contact form on your site that will mail anything to anyone.
Watch what leaves
Keep an eye on your mail queue. A queue that suddenly grows is either a loop or a compromise, and both are easier to fix in the first hour.
Where the line is
Unsolicited bulk mail in any form is not permitted, including sending on behalf of someone else and hosting the infrastructure behind it. That is in our acceptable use policy and it is not a grey area.
Still stuck? Mail support@novogara.com — an engineer answers, at any hour. Back to the knowledge base