[Mailman-Users] From Header Changed

[Bill Cole]

On 25 Feb 2013, at 8:26, Dennis Putnam wrote:

> I guess I'm not surprised either. Unfortunately with ISPs blocking
> outgoing SMTP there are few alternatives.

That is generally a function of what sort of access you buy. The sad 
reality is that blocking port 25 helps limit the scale & cost of abuse 
desk and retail tech support operations, so ISPs block port 25 by 
default on their cheapest access accounts. Depending on your provider, 
you may be able to get port 25 unblocked just by asking for it or by 
paying a premium for a "business grade" account, but it can be difficult 
to run a mailing list from anywhere in the address space of a "consumer" 
ISP because of receiver-side filtering.

> I wonder if any of the pay
> SMTP servers would work any better.

Intentional providers of paid SMTP smarthost service do exist in the 
market. Freemail operations exist to muster users for operations that 
sell their aggregated eyeballs or for "upselling" into revenue-producing 
services. Mail smarthost service, especially for anything of a "bulk" 
nature, is a costly and risky service to provide which doesn't provide 
much opportunity for a freemail operator to resell eyeballs or lead 
users to paid services, so it is natural that they are intentionally 
closing off the ability to use them as smarthosts for free.

If you're willing & able to be a small-scale sysadmin, it may be worth 
the trouble to forget about buying SMTP smarthost service and instead 
get a small virtual private server with a reputable provider. Just as 
being on a consumer ISP network can mean that you share the aggregate 
reputation of everyone else on that network, routing mail through a 
shared smarthost (even one charging for service) throws your lot in with 
all of the customers of that service and buying a VPS on the cheap (e.g. 
Amazon EC2) means you end up at least partially sharing the reputation 
of everyone else using the same low-rent provider. It's unfortunate, but 
as the net has matured it has taken on some of the same features as the 
real world; the market value your home (real or presumed) is a source of 
prejudices made tangible in how likely strangers are to trust you.