Email server at home with dyndns

Question

I've set up an email server at home using MS Exchange (courtesy of MSDNAA). All the necessary ports are open and everything works as expected for the most part.

For the time being, I just have one of the temporary dyndns domain names (e.g. somename.dyndns.org), but if I can get this working well enough I will obtain a domain name of my own.

The problem I'm having is that messages sent from my server get flagged as spam by gmail and other major email providers. How can I prevent (or at least discourage) this from happening?

My end goal is to use this server exclusively and divorce myself from gmail, but if everything I send gets flagged as spam I won't feel comfortable that others are receiving my emails.

Answer 1

SPAM is a real tough one. Certainly using dyndns name is causing an issue as is the address from your ISP (likely). You'll need to get your own domain and set up an SPF record. It may help.

Answer 2

When using a large ISP, the IP range is often flagged as some users are spamming or infected with something sending spam. Not sure if that is part of your issue.

Many ISPs will not be helpful in resolving this as they don't want a mail server on their network. Some will offer a "business" account that they will assign a static IP and assist with mail issues

Answer 3

You can use dyndns.org services but you will always look like spam to a lot of mail servers due to the way they set their filters up.