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Need vm advice from smarter people then myself
Question asked by Stephen Smith - 1/9/2025 at 7:44 PM
Unanswered
Please know that I am not an expert technician, either server nor smartermail.   I have been administering a Windows server based Smartmail for 15 years and am familiar. We have only 10 client domains, 100 boxes, less then 1000 emails per day.
We have attempted to buy a new SM  license and have SmarterTools staff install on a Vultr, Debian VM instance.  After Vultr unblocked port 25,  the entire installation (by Ray Burd), seems to be working well.   

Maybe.  I am now finding that the reputation of the IP assigned to us is good,  but other IPs in the same block are ranked on many spam blacklists,  and this has resulted in nearly all of the mail sent from this new install goes straight to spam folders due to the vm's associated IP block.

Can anyone offer advice on what I can do about this? 

Changing the IP is not viable, since it is possible the new IP could have associated spammers two months from now.

Is the only way to guarantee your IP reputation is to have your own independent box and IPs?  For our very small amount of mail, the cost of a dedicated server for SM seems overkill on an annual basis.

Open to any suggestions,
Stephen

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J. LaDow Replied
Look into SMTP2GO as an outbound gateway provider. That's what we use for certain domains and for some of our more transactional stuff that we need guaranteed delivery on.  Been with them for several years without issue.

For your situation, it'd probably be the simplest, and most cost-effective solution.  You still handle your inbound - they just smart host the outbound.
MailEnable survivor / convert --
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
The best way to avoid these types of issues is to "prime" the IP ahead of time by incorporating it into your SPF and other results ahead of it's official rollout as that gives providers time to get those records into their caches and thereby associate it with your domain/organization. That isn't always possible though as you've seen so in that case: 

1. Make sure you have SPF published, DKIM and DMARC for any domains that use that IP, etc. These will go a long way in assuring third party providers that your usage of the IP is legitimate. 
2. Send messages to test accounts you have on Gmail, Yahoo, etc and hit the Not Spam/Not Junk button on it a few times. This helps prime the internal block lists they use. 
3. If all else fails, relaying your outgoing email through a known good relay service as J. LaDow pointed out should get you going in the right direction sooner rather than later. 
Kyle Kerst IT Coordinator SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com

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