I don't pretend to speak for Steve, but I assume spam is one issue, people who want to call and have you curate their whitelist and blacklist and release messages from their quarantine. Or expect you to fix a recipient's mail server blocking their messages as spam.
And those who don't understand POP vs IMAP vs webmail or getting messages on multiple devices, or you have to explain why they can't send email to johnsmith@gmail they have to put in the .com. Someone already mentioned that big providers tend to whitelist each other but your server is more likely to be blocked for spam. And this will happen when one of your not-so-tech-savvy customers gets their credentials hacked (again) and since they use the same password everywhere (of course) their credentials start getting used on your email system to send spam using SMTP-AUTH. The key to offering email service (like if you're Gmail) is not to have a phone number listed anywhere for people to call for support. But if you're an ISP that also offers email, they know where you live. And you are self-selecting for high maintenance users, the ones who don't need hand holding are on Gmail. The other category would be businesses with their own domains, that is a whole other set of pros and cons, but probably more worth pursuing. -----Original Message----- From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mike Hammett Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2026 9:44 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Hosted emails "Id sooner lick a badgers left ballsac than ever host email again." Why? -- Mike Hammett ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Jones" <[email protected]> To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2026 10:51:49 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Hosted emails Since the great Exchange, rack space hasn't been forthright with anything. I'm actually looking forward to the call with Zoho and they were originally just a due diligence contact. Id sooner lick a badgers left ballsac than ever host email again. On Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 7:50 PM Dev < [email protected] > wrote: We did our own Postfix servers for years and finally moved it third party, since all it does is attract hate when an email doesn’t get delivered for any number of reasons that all become your fault. Large providers pretty much can’t block Rackspace, and it “just works” so we don’t have to sweat delivery issues. Has Rackspace said why they suddenly feel the need to ream everyone? I’ll look into Zoho as well. > On 17 Jan 2026, at 10:18 AM, Mike Hammett < [email protected] > wrote: > > We still use our own server on our own network. They aren't hard. Carbonio is > the mail server, going through (inbound and outbound) Proxmox Mail Gateway. > It's a really simple and reliable setup. > > -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
