[clue-tech] So-called "smart" hosts.

[Ken MacFerrin]

David Guntner wrote:
> T. Joseph Carter grabbed a keyboard and wrote:
>> Okay, now that I am using Comcast for connection purposes, I have
>> discovered an old pet peeve of mine: Discrimination based on connection
>> class.  I have a valid IP, I have valid DNS, and I have a valid mailserver
>> at the IP with the appropriate DNS entry.
>>
>> At least two major sites refuse my email because I am not using Comcast's
>> so-called smarthost.  Now, I'm paranoid about my email.  I want to know if
>> my mail is delivered or not, first of all, and I don't necessarily trust
>> Comcast nor any other ISP whose admins I do not know and trust at least by
>> reputation to not lose my mail, in either direction.
>>
>> Any suggestions, besides seeking professional assistance regarding this
>> paranoia of mine?  ;)
> 
> Thanks to spam-bots (zombies or not) as well as other miscreants who abuse
> address space that's used by end-users on providers such as Comcast, there
> are sites which will simply refuse mail connections from within that
> address space.  There's nothing you can really do about it, short of
> changing to an ISP that doesn't have its user IP address space blocked by
> providers like the ones you mention here.  Well that, or using your ISP's
> mailserver as a smarthost relay. :-)
> 

My personal workaround for this is to rent a cheap VPS server that I use
as a mail gateway.  For around $10-30/month you can rent a Xen based
virtual server that allows you to chose your own distro and provides you
with a static IP and "always on" connection to configure whatever
services you choose.  I find this immensely helpful for controlling my
own mail and dns services.  I'm currently using unixshell# but there are
a number of them out there that can be found by Googling "xen vps",
including the local folks at tummy.com.
-Ken