I hope I'm not sounding too much like a broken record, but check out this thread for a couple of opinions on this matter:

http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/message.jspa?messageID=65389#65389

ok, I'm aware that not having a static IP is not ideal for mail, and I know that it would cause problems for a mail server if the instance went down....but assuming I'm willing to live with that, or find another work around, my question remains......is it possible to run a mail server and get reverse dns and all that is required to run a mail server on ec2 ????

All though its not recommended to set up a mail server with a semi-static ip it is doable.

Yes you can set one up on ec2.


Message was edited by: H. Watson

<blockquote> All though its not recommended to set up a mail server with a semi-static ip it is doable.

Yes you can set one up on ec2.
</blockquote>
Not without a mail forwarding service you can't.  Sure, if you send mail directly you'll get mixed results.  Some mail servers will accept your mail, but others will reject it, for example hotmail. In general you can't send mail reliably.

<blockquote> </blockquote>

<blockquote> Not without a mail forwarding service you can't.  Sure, if you send mail directly you'll get mixed results.  Some mail servers will accept your mail, but others will reject it, for example hotmail. In general you can't send mail reliably.

</blockquote>That is incorrect.

I've set it up with both a forwarding service and without.

Amazon Web Services provides both PTR records and reverse DNS which is all that is required to get a fully functioning mail server which can send mail reliably.

I've successfully sent emails to hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc without a mail forwarding service.
<blockquote></blockquote>

My experience is that some of the emails sent directly by my app (no forwarder) get rejected, because the "semi-static" ip they are coming from is blacklisted.  It turns out that the blacklisting is because the ip is known to be from a dynamic ip range.  You can go to the blacklisting site and formally request a de-listing but a) that's a manual procedure and b) they make clear that you are supposed to be a static ip to get unlisted.

I find that very frustrating.  I can understand EC2's reasons for the ip number being only semi-static; so I won't add to that debate, but it sure would be helpful if there was a reliable mail router internal to EC2 that we could forward outgoing mail to.  Wouldn't this be a relatively simple thing for Amazon to provide?  Maybe there is one and nobody's asked yet?

i had the same problem with my emails

gmx, hotmail put the mails into spam folder
gmail has no problems with it.

i wrote a smtp class, that connects to a gmail account and sends my emails. it works, but its not the best solutions for this problem

<span class="jive-quoteheader">johnnythreetimes wrote:</span>
<div class="jive-quote"><blockquote>
Not without a mail forwarding service you can't.  Sure, if you send mail directly you'll get mixed results.  Some mail servers will accept your mail, but others will reject it, for example hotmail. In general you can't send mail reliably.
</blockquote>That is incorrect.

I've set it up with both a forwarding service and without.

Amazon Web Services provides both PTR records and reverse DNS which is all that is required to get a fully functioning mail server which can send mail reliably.

I've successfully sent emails to hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc without a mail forwarding service.
</div>
The problem gets better IF AWS is willing to create a PTR record for your IP.  However, I contacted them about this and they said they don't do that sort of thing.  Either you caught them on a good day, or I on a bad day.  But, I can see why AWS would not want to get involved with PTR records since if and when you get a new IP address you will have to contact them again and have them modify the record.

But even if you can get a PTR record it does not solve the problem.  Your IP is coming from a well known non-static IP range.  Any mail servers that are using a major DNSBL like zen.spamhaus.org will score your mail as possible SPAM while others will just simply reject it.

I sent an email to hotmail directly from an AWS intsance and it bounced with a message to the effect that hotmail doesn't accept mail from non-static IPs.  Maybe hotmail works for you because you have a reverse IP,  I don't know.  No matter what though, mail sent from an AWS instance without a mail forwarder will always look allot like SPAM.


Message was edited by: bfoster89

could you give more info on PTR and reverse DNS
I really don't know how to set it up (or where to look for)

You can't setup the reverse DNS, Amazon would need to.

Here is what we did: http://blog.confnow.com/2008/03/amazon-web-serv.html

I read your comments. Can you guide me, how you do that. ?
Your help appreciated.
I will use the "Elastic IP Address", which is static IP address from AWS.

Regards,
Idrees.

I would also like to know how to do it. Could anyone share on this?

Hi Everyone,

We're working on an outbound email relay service for Amazon EC2 that would permanently resolve the blacklisting problems being experienced by many Amazon EC2 users. The new service, which is being developed by seasoned anti-spam industry veterans, will

a) Cost much less than authsmtp.com
b) Be billed through Amazon
c) Route your mail through long-living static IP addresses that are not blacklisted

If you'd like to be notified when the new service launches, please visit

http://mailchannels.com/contact/ec2-outbound-inquiry.html

Thanks!
Ken Simpson
CEO, MailChannels

The link (<span style="color: #003399">http://mailchannels.com/contact/ec2-outbound-inquiry.html</span>) doesn't work.
Was the new service launched?
If not, how can I get notified after it lauches?
Thank you.