As I have been reiterating all week, an open relay is a bad idea. If your mail server is left open, anyone can use your SMTP service to send mail, and spammers will use it. This can result in your server being blacklisted and extraneous use of system resources that …
July, 2010
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15 July
Mail Server Causing High Server Load
Question: My CPU usage on my server is very high, and it seems to be originated from my mail server. What could be the problem? Answer: If your mail server is sucking up valuable CPU power, there are a couple of possibilities, none of which are pleasant. 1. You or …
June, 2010
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1 June
PHP Mail Vs. SMTP Mailing Lists
Whether your goal is marketing or simply communicating with your website’s online community, there comes a time when you need to send out a mass email. I am not suggesting you spam your customers or users. What I do suggest, however, is that you have some way of contacting people …
May, 2010
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17 May
When You Are Accused of Spamming…
Question: My web host has accused me of being a spammer and has suspended my account. How do I prove I am not a spammer? Answer: Usually, you will only be accused of spamming in one of three situations: (1) you actually are a spammer, (2) your account is hosted …
April, 2010
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2 April
How to change the Postfix port number
By default, Postfix, Sendmail, and other SMTP mail servers rely on port 25 to send email. Normally, this is fine and works for most situations. Some Internet Service Providers, however, disagree. They see port 25 as a prime port for spammer exploitation, and many have started to block it. If …
February, 2010
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26 February
Limit the incoming email rate in Postfix
Question: I have spammers sending multiple email messages to my mail server. How can can I limit the number of emails they can send in a given amount of time? Answer: This is a trick that many spammers and malicious hackers will use to flood your server with their nonsense. …
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4 February
Monitoring your server from your iPhone
Picture this. You’re on the go, traveling, working, going on a date, or even just taking a nap, and you suddenly start getting phone calls. Little do you know that those phone calls are from angry customers or your boss. The server went down two hours ago, but you had …
December, 2009
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3 December
Where can I find a free SMTP server?
An SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server is primarily used for sending email messages between servers. Most email systems use SMTP servers. But are there free servers for this task? Free SMTP Server is a Windows program that satisfies that need, and it is very easy to use. Furthermore, it …