Email alias with free e mail provider - help!

YorkshireTraveller

Code wrote: »

Then what you are trying to do is categorically not possible. You are trying to spoof an email source using a legit 3rd party SMTP MTA, which every advancement in mail security for years is exactly trying to prevent (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, IP rep etc).because this is how spam and phishing happens.

Your options are:

1. Pay the money and use the easily SMTP servers
2. Find an open relay and use it until it gets RBL'd, then find another one (bad choice)
3. Set up your own SMTP relay
4. Move your domain away from Easily, because they seem terrible. Switch to someone that offers the service for free and doesn't overcharge extortionately, e.g.: 123-reg etc

I suggest #4 as best solution, #1 as easiest.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

Code

One last thing. I just looked at Easily again and they are very unhelpful with package details.

However, the basic web hosting package includes 1 click wordpress hosting. Wordpress must be able to send emails as basic functionality, therefore it must have access to an SMTP server.

It's possible they lock this SMTP MTA to their webhosting IP range, or otherwise firewall it, but have you actually tried using my Gmail instructions previously with smtp.easily.co.uk, and your easily username & password as credentials?

I wonder if this will just work, and the "paid email" service you're looking at is a fully functional webmail / mailbox etc, when all you want is the SMTP MTA.

But anyway, looking at how they charge you per functional mailbox per domain, I strongly suggest you move away from them to a decent host. It takes very little time & effort to unlock and transfer a domain.

YorkshireTraveller

Code wrote: »

One last thing. I just looked at Easily again and they are very unhelpful with package details.

However, the basic web hosting package includes 1 click wordpress hosting. Wordpress must be able to send emails as basic functionality, therefore it must have access to an SMTP server.

It's possible they lock this SMTP MTA to their webhosting IP range, or otherwise firewall it, but have you actually tried using my Gmail instructions previously with smtp.easily.co.uk, and your easily username & password as credentials?

I wonder if this will just work, and the "paid email" service you're looking at is a fully functional webmail / mailbox etc, when all you want is the SMTP MTA.

But anyway, looking at how they charge you per functional mailbox per domain, I strongly suggest you move away from them to a decent host. It takes very little time & effort to unlock and transfer a domain.

I haven't tried accessing the easily SMTP server - being honest, I think I've just about reached the limits of my technical ability!

You know what it's like, try to help relatives and it spirals beyond your abilities.

esuhl

Code wrote: »

Then what you are trying to do is categorically not possible. You are trying to spoof an email source using a legit 3rd party SMTP MTA, which every advancement in mail security for years is exactly trying to prevent (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, IP rep etc).because this is how spam and phishing happens.

It's not impossible at all -- I do it! Your ISP should provide an SMTP server you can use. These days you often need to get them to add your domain to their whitelist, but it works just fine.

And, aside from the domain registration, it's free.

Code

Esuhi, SPF etc will mess that up. Your ISP might let you do it and it works for now, but unless you also comply with SPF config then you will, for example, find that Gmail flags all your mail with a warning or as spam. Similar will apply to other mail hosts and MTAs.

One of the problems the poster has is that Gmail puts "on behalf of" which doesn't look great. I think a security warning on every email, or silent rejection of email at the recipient end, would be worse.

So if you have control over your DNS records and can add an SPF records with your ISP SMTP, then it will be OK. But seeing as easily don't even seem to allow use of SMTP without paying for it, I doubt you'd be allowed to edit DNS.

The problem here is not the generic ability to do what the poster wants - that's easy. The problem is the restrictions that his host Easily puts in place.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/33786?hl=en

"If your domain does not have an SPF record, some recipient domains may reject messages from your users because they cannot validate that the messages come from an authorized mail server."

YorkshireTraveller

Code wrote: »

Esuhi, SPF etc will mess that up. Your ISP might let you do it and it works for now, but unless you also comply with SPF config then you will, for example, find that Gmail flags all your mail with a warning or as spam. Similar will apply to other mail hosts and MTAs.

One of the problems the poster has is that Gmail puts "on behalf of" which doesn't look great. I think a security warning on every email, or silent rejection of email at the recipient end, would be worse.

So if you have control over your DNS records and can add an SPF records with your ISP SMTP, then it will be OK. But seeing as easily don't even seem to allow use of SMTP without paying for it, I doubt you'd be allowed to edit DNS.

The problem here is not the generic ability to do what the poster wants - that's easy. The problem is the restrictions that his host Easily puts in place.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/33786?hl=en

"If your domain does not have an SPF record, some recipient domains may reject messages from your users because they cannot validate that the messages come from an authorized mail server."

Thanks again for your advice.

esuhl

Code wrote: »

Esuhi, SPF etc will mess that up. Your ISP might let you do it and it works for now, but unless you also comply with SPF config then you will, for example, find that Gmail flags all your mail with a warning or as spam. Similar will apply to other mail hosts and MTAs.

One of the problems the poster has is that Gmail puts "on behalf of" which doesn't look great. I think a security warning on every email, or silent rejection of email at the recipient end, would be worse.

So if you have control over your DNS records and can add an SPF records with your ISP SMTP, then it will be OK. But seeing as easily don't even seem to allow use of SMTP without paying for it, I doubt you'd be allowed to edit DNS.

The problem here is not the generic ability to do what the poster wants - that's easy. The problem is the restrictions that his host Easily puts in place.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/33786?hl=en

"If your domain does not have an SPF record, some recipient domains may reject messages from your users because they cannot validate that the messages come from an authorized mail server."

Ah, thanks. I hadn't heard of SPF records.

It looks pretty easy to create one, though. Although I haven't got my head round the syntax yet.

Anyway, it doesn't look like an insurmountable problem.

onomatopoeia99

Code wrote: »

Esuhi, SPF etc will mess that up. Your ISP might let you do it and it works for now, but unless you also comply with SPF config then you will, for example, find that Gmail flags all your mail with a warning or as spam. Similar will apply to other mail hosts and MTAs.

If someone owns their own domain (which is where the topic started) and therefore controls the DNS for it, they can simply not create an SPF record, which will mean they can use any MTA they have permission to use, such as their ISP's smarthost, and it will not cause an SPF failure.

esuhl

It looks like you can effectively disable SPF by setting the following SPF record:

v=spf1 +all

I'd rather do it "properly" to stop spammers from using my account. But I'm getting a bit confused as to the syntax required. :-/

If I have an email address on domain (me@mydomain.co.uk) registered with registrar.co.uk, which forwards email tomy free GMX account (me123@gmx.co.uk) and I use smtp.myisp.co.uk as the SMTP server for sending mail as esuhl@mydomain.co.uk... what do I need to put in the SPF record?

esuhl

Code wrote: »

The problem here is not the generic ability to do what the poster wants - that's easy. The problem is the restrictions that his host Easily puts in place.

I hadn't heard of Easily, but it looks like they're a domain registrar. If they "put restrictions in place" to prevent you from setting an SPF record, then just use a different registrar.

To the OP: This sounds quite technical, but once you (or I) figure out what settings you need, this should be trivially easy to set up. It's just a case of logging in to a site, typing a few characters, and that's it. No reason not to use a free email host like GMail/GMX/Yahoo or whatever.

Or have I misunderstood something, Code? :-/