I have a domain registered and AWS EC2 with LAMP used as a online game server.
Now I wish to set-up a e-mail server on it. But after some research, I found it to be some kind complicated.
The e-mail server will only be used to send forgot-password emails to players. So I am seeking a simple way to set-up a send-mail server without mailbox or any other functions that will compliate the things. Is there any way to do that?
I definitely advise you to use Amazon SES. You will use Amazon's infrastructure to send emails as a service.
To me, it seems to be the best solution to your use case. You won't pay much, won't need to worry about downtime or scalability, and will simply need to use their SDK in whichever language you prefer.
Take a look at the pricing, it is quite attractive.
Related
I recently started working at an IT company as a support agent and one of the things we do is managing the backup of our clients' servers.
It's all working nicely, but one part is just terrible, which is the backup log. The backup log is a excel file with a list of all the clients and for each of them a list of dates and whether or not the backup has succeeded on that date. The data in that document comes from emails rapports that are automatically sent when the backup finishes.
But here comes the bad part: Once in a week there is an employee who checks ALL THE EMAILS and manually fills the backup log. This was too much for me, especially knowing that we only have about 5 employees.
Solution: Make a script that does it for you. Yeah, I know and I think I'm capable of doing that, but there's a few things that I'm not sure about and I hope you guys could help me with it:
The mails are all in a different folders in an inbox that I had to add to my outlook manually and I don't know how I can programmatically reach it.
I don't know in what language I should use for this. I'm able to do it in a lot of languages, but I don't know which one suits this best
These are the only two things that I don't know and I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this.
EDIT:
The server is an exchange server with IMAP enabled. I eat java for breakfast and I've used JavaMail before, so I think I'll go with that, thanks
This is a pretty open-ended question....
You should pick a language that you're comfortable with and that has a good email support library, e.g., JavaMail for Java.
If the messages are in an Exchange server that has enabled IMAP support, you should be able to read the messages using JavaMail or any other library that support IMAP. If the server only supports the Microsoft proprietary protocol, you have fewer choices.
We really need to know more about the mail server you're using to offer much more guidance.
I've checked out dotcloud, it seems quite promising. I use google apps for my email, so it is very important for me to be able to set up my MX records to point to gmail servers.
I want to know if this is possible with dotcloud, I tried searching for this but didn't find any references.
Could someone who has used dotcloud tell me how this can be done?
At dotCloud, we don't take control of your DNS so you are welcome to send your mail wherever you want. We have plenty of users who use gmail for email and have their sites and applications hosted on dotCloud. If you have any additional questions, feel free to shoot us an email at support#dotcloud.com - we'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.
Best Regards,
Charles H
Full-disclosure: If it's not immediately obvious, I work at dotCloud.
I'm currently integrating Sendgrid (Back-end API) with Phplist (front-end). However, I realised that there are many features that Phplist doesn't support such as autoresponders, different management levels (sub/superusers) and is unable to send high volumes. May I know if there is a better front end that I can use to integrate it with sendgrid?
Yes! OpenEMM seems to have the features you're looking for. You can see the full list here, but the highlights are:
Configuration of different users with different rights/roles
Autoresponder mails and error messages (bounce management)
It looks a little tricky to setup, but they have good documentation. Also, the code is hosted on SourceForge and the reviews look solid too.
In terms of setting it up with SendGrid, you have to configure your sendmail to use our SMTP servers. Luckily, we have a tutorial already that shows you exactly how to do that:
http://docs.sendgrid.com/documentation/get-started/integrate/examples/sendmail/
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In my project have to suggest email sending approaches to my manager. As a part of design document.
Following are the approaches available. Kindly share your views on pros and cons for these approaches
Approach 1: Use third party SMTP
Pros: Readily available
Cons: Costs
Approach 2: Host own SMTP on Windows Azure
Pros: ?
Cons: ?
Approach 3: Using Public email Account
Pros: No additional cost or dependency.
Cons: Requires more effort in terms of designing and implementation.
Approach 2 is not recommended by Microsoft, and I am also with that. The main reason is that the chance for IP Address of Azure datacenter to become blacklisted because of SPAM is very high.
Don't quite understand Approach 3.
The highly recommended approach (also by Microsoft) is to use a third party mail sending system, such as SendGrid. Microsoft & SendGrid are partnering to offer Azure developers free and easy way to reliably, securely and easily send e-mail message from the Windows Azure platform. Read more on the link provided. And this is the official reccomendation.
Does not matter what SMTP server you use because all your code needs to know is about the SMTP host, port, secure mode authentication and user credentials. And ofcourse your application should be able to connect to the SMTP host. If your application supports connecting to any SMTP, then no need to bother about what to use. You can very well use your own company's SMTP server or use public SMTP severs like Gmail, yahoo etc.
We use Amazon's SES service to send emails from AzureWatch to our customers. Currently sending north of 3000-4000 emails per day. Works wonderfully and is very affordable.
There is also option to queue emails before sending them using services like SendGrid or AWS SES. You should consider this option if your solution is dealing with high loads or if you do not like the fact that third-party smtp service is out of the Azure and out of your (direct) control.
Take a look at:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazure/archive/2010/10/08/adoption-program-insights-sending-emails-from-windows-azure-part-1-of-2.aspx
http://www.AzureMailer.com (commercial solution)
third party is the recommended way to do this, take a look at:
http://blog.smarx.com/posts/emailtheinternet-com-sending-and-receiving-email-in-windows-azure
We want to send a small number of emails to our customers.
Is there an advantage is using 3rd party SOA services like ActiveTrail over implementing it ourselves?
Are there cheap services that really give an "extra oomph", and are worth considering?
The minimal requirements for such a service are:
Not cost a ton of money for a relatively small number of emails.
Have an easy API for sending emails, decent documentation
Provide a real benefit like helping you manage spam/lost emails.
If I am reading correctly, you are looking for something to manage bulk mail (newsletters and its ilk) to your customers. Luckily for you, you have plenty of choices!
The most popular of which is MailChimp which has a "free forever" plan which is good for up to 2,000 subscribers.
Here is a complete list of bulk mail providers:
MailChimp
MadMimi
AWeber
Campaign Monitor
And here is a list of other mail providers that are capable of handling bulk mail:
PostageApp
SendGrid
MailJet
Feel free to take a look at all of them and try them out. They should have free accounts for you to kick the tires around with, but all of them are solid alternatives.
(FULL DISCLOSURE: I am the Product Manager of PostageApp. Happy to help you out if you have any further questions about bulk mail providers!)
The biggest advantage to using a 3rd party is not worrying about your site being black listed by providers. If you are sending large quantities of emails on a regular basis, then you will regularly need to make sure you are following all the rules and keep up to date on them for bulk mail sending. Alternatively, the bulk mail senders will handle all of this for you.
You said "a small number of emails to our customers," but not knowing what regularity or size of your customer base, I cannot give a solid yes/no to the question, but it may just be easier for you to use a service like MailChimp, where it won't cost you anything if you are within their 2,000 recipients and it will make it easier for you to scale up as your business grows.