FWIW, I run the "offsite" portions of my application (proxies for apple's push notification service and proxies for services that get ratelimited from appengine) in Rackspace Cloud on a single $11/month virtual server. Works great - static IP, forward and reverse DNS.
Here's one of my opensource projects, it may help you process bounce notifications: http://code.google.com/p/subethasmtp/ Good luck, Jeff On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 2:42 AM, Tauren Mills <[email protected]> wrote: > Jeff, > > Thanks for your feedback. I'm thinking you are probably right that GAE > isn't the best solution, especially since you are confirming my > concerns about VERP. It's too bad this isn't possible, because it > seems like GAE would provide a fairly effective way to implement this > solution in an extremely scalable manner. > > I may be mistaken, but it seems like an advantage to doing this on GAE > via the Mail API is that mail is sent using a mail server that Google > manages. This means that it is unlikely to get blacklisted by other > ISPs. I've had troubles with my mail servers being blacklisted because > of certain customers abusing it. This shouldn't be a problem for my > webapp, since the mail server will only send mail to registered users. > Bottom line is that mail servers in general are something I really > don't care to hassle with. > > Also, I don't think that EC2 would be the best platform. Without > reverse DNS control and truly static IPs, hosting a mail server might > be problematic. As far as I know, they don't provide a Mail API, so > it would be back to simply managing my own mail server and the > headaches that go with it. > > Rackspace Cloud might work since they provide a static IP and their > Fanatical Support person told me they can change reverse DNS for me. > But I'm still managing my own mail server. They do not provide an > SMTP server for cloud users. > > I just came across a service called JangoSMTP that seems to do much of > what I need. Unfortunately, if I want to send a single email to all my > 1000 users each day, I'm looking at spending $180/mo or so. But it > includes an API, supports DKIM, handles bounces, and even supports > feedback loops. > http://www.jangosmtp.com/How-It-Works.asp > > It looks like I may just have to manage my own server using a > traditional dedicated or VPS server. > > Tauren > > > On Feb 24, 12:46 am, Jeff Schnitzer <[email protected]> wrote: >> One thing to watch out for is that GAE's mailer won't send >> multipart/related emails, so you cannot embed images in your mail. >> You can link to external images but that's nearly useless these days. >> >> Considering your VERP requirement, you're probably better off running >> the email-sending portion of your app in EC2 or Rackspace Cloud (or >> whatever). >> >> Jeff >> >> >> >> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 2:19 PM, Tauren Mills <[email protected]> wrote: >> > I have a webapp that needs to send out customized mail to its users. I >> > have thousands of users and need to send messages to them such as >> > account activation notices, changed password notices, daily status >> > reports (activity summary, action items they need to do, etc.), and >> > alerts/reminders at specific times. Each message that is sent out is >> > customized for a particular user. Once every few weeks there might be >> > mass-emailing of the same message to everyone that announces new >> > features or changes to the webapp. >> >> > Currently, the webapp is not on GAE, but may be in the future. At the >> > moment I'm considering using GAE as a platform for the mailer service. >> > This is so that I can scale up the mailer service as needed without >> > having to maintain the infrastructure inhouse. >> >> > The basic idea is that I would build an application on GAE that has a >> > RESTful interface. My app could then add messages to the send queue >> > via that interface. The GAE mailer app would then use GAE's Mail >> > api's to send out the messages. My webapp would also have a RESTful >> > interface that the mailer service would use to communicate bak >> > information about errors, bounces, and so forth. >> >> > 1. Is this a reasonable sounding solution? Any suggestions for >> > improvements? What are the drawbacks? >> >> > 2. I'm assuming there isn't anything that would prevent me from having >> > DKIM and other technologies to help reduce my mailings as being >> > flagged as spam. Is this a valid assumption? >> >> > 3. I need to have bounce detection support and was planning to use >> > VERP to do so. Since it appears GAE may limit the sending email >> > addresses, I'm concerned this may not be possible. Is there any way >> > to use GAE mail apis and support VERP? >> >> > 4. Are there any existing services that already do this? Any open >> > source projects that would help get me part way? >> >> > Thanks! >> >> > -- >> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> > "Google App Engine" group. >> > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> > [email protected]. >> > For more options, visit this group >> > athttp://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google App Engine" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. 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