PowerMTA Settings Advice

[snyyyz]

Hi guys!

I am new on this forum, but I have been reading some threads once in a while and looks like a good place to get some advice and tips for Email Marketing.

I am currently setting up my PowerMTA config for my mail server. But I am a bit unsure about the domain macro, <mx-rollup-list> and queue function regarding Hotmail/Outlook/Live/Msn domain.

Most Email Marketers know that Hotmail/Outlook/Live/Msn is the same and owned by Microsoft.

The User guide for PowerMTA guides after that (Being the same blabla), with setting up the configuration to "domain macro", "mx-roll-up" or "queue" them together based on the MX Records for those domains.

But when looking up the specific MX records for the domains it looks like this:

• outlook-com.olc.protection.outlook.com - Outlook.com
• hotmail-com.olc.protection.outlook.com - Hotmail.com
  
• eur.olc.protection.outlook.com - hotmail.nl
  
• live-com.olc.protection.outlook.com - Live.com
  
• eur.olc.protection.outlook.com - Live.nl
  
• msn-com.olc.protection.outlook.com - Msn.com

IP's are within the same range 104.47.xx.xx

It's of course just like mt1.server.com, mt2.server.com, mt3.server.com and so on - But when looking them up it is only ONE MX record pr domain. Not 2 or 3.

So after looking up these MX records, I began to doubt that it would be correct to put all hotmail, Outlook, MSN and Live TLDs together in one queue. Based on they got different MX records.

My current config before launch testing is(Some of it):

<domain hotmail.$HotmailTopLevel>
    queue-to hotmail.queue
</domain>

<domain live.$LiveTopLevel>
    queue-to hotmail.queue
</domain>

<domain outlook.$OutlookTopLevel>
    queue-to hotmail.queue
</domain>

<domain msn.com>
    queue-to hotmail.queue
</domain>

<domain hotmail.queue>
  smtp-hosts lookup-mx:hotmail.com
  max-smtp-out    X
  max-msg-rate    X/x
  max-msg-per-connection X
</domain>

So my question is if anyone has experience with this? The deliverability, bounce messages and if they should be split up per MX record?

Mainly because if their servers get too many requests they will reject them. So for example:

If it was set up like:

<domain hotmail.$HotmailTopLevel>
    queue-to hotmail.queue
</domain>

<domain live.$LiveTopLevel>
    queue-to live.queue
</domain>

<domain outlook.$OutlookTopLevel>
    queue-to outlook.queue
</domain>

<domain msn.com>
    queue-to msn.queue
</domain>

<domain (hotmail/msn/outlook/live).queue>
  smtp-hosts lookup-mx:(hotmail.com/msn.com/outlook.com/live.com)
  max-smtp-out    X
  max-msg-rate    X/x
  max-msg-per-connection X
</domain>

So it is queued/mx-roll-up'ed pr MX Record instead of just queued after Hotmail.com's MX Record.
But I am not sure if Hotmail will reject connections with that config. Like if it takes the max-msg-rate and max-msg-per-connection and counts them as one in Hotmail's end. So it gets too many Emails from my Mail server and messes it up.

I hope anyone has some experience within this and I apologize for the looooong thread but If you manage to read it all and could give some advice... I would highly appreciate it!

 

[KwarkAds]

1. domain macros - a group of domains to treat similarly. These are ISP domains found in regular email syntax.

In PMTA it would be like this

domain-macro hotmail hotmail.com, outlook.com, msn.com, email.msn.com, live.com, live.ca, live.co.uk, live.com.au

BTW, you have to define the name of the macro (can be any you want). In the example above, it is in italics and is named "hotmail"

2. queue - this is the mail settings for the domain defined or the macro defined. PMTA is very granular and allows individual mail settings per VMTA and domain via the "queue".

In PMTA it would be like this

<domain hotmail.queue>
queue-priority 80
smtp-hosts lookup-mx:hotmail.com
...etc....more settings....
</domain>

3. mx rollup - this is a group of domains BASED on their MX values (mail servers actual names), instaed of domain name.

It is similar to "queue" but defined separately and applicable to MX servers defined in the mx-rollup-list. Can contain same or different settings. Essentially, it allows grouping by MX instead of domains.
Be careful with this since it is hard coded in your settings. However, it is useful for ultra sensitive domains.

In PMTA it would be like this

<mx-rollup-list>
mx aspmx2.googlemail.com gmailhosted.rollup
mx aspmx3.googlemail.com gmailhosted.rollup
mx aspmx.l.google.com gmailhosted.rollup
mx mx-biz.mail.am0.yahoodns.net yahoohosted.rollup
mx mx-biz.mail.gm0.yahoodns.net yahoohosted.rollup
mx mx1.biz.mail.yahoo.com yahoohosted.rollup
...etc...more here....
</mx-rollup-list>


RATIONALE:

By using macros, mx rollup, queues, you can control specific settings for a group of domains, or their mx.
This is usefull for example with yahoo. They maintain groups of MX servers based on continent. These settings allows you to have different optimized settings. As usual, each VMTA is bound to each IP and follows these
settings accordingly.

In PMTA it would be like this

domain-macro yahooamerica yahoo.com, yahoo.ca, yahoo.co.nz, yahoo.co.il, yahoo.com.ar, yahoo.com.au, yahoo.com.br, yahoo.com.co, yahoo.com.mx, yahoo.com.tr, ymail.com, ca.yahoo.com
<domain yahoona.queue>
queue-priority 50
smtp-hosts lookup-mx:yahoo.com
connect-timeout 2m

domain-macro yahooasia yahoo.com.sg, qc.yahoo.com, yahoo.ae, yahoo.ch, yahoo.ru, yahoo.co.id, yahoo.co.in, yahoo.co.th, yahoo.com.hk, yahoo.com.my, yahoo.com.ph, yahoo.com.vn, yahoo.in
<domain yahooasia.queue>
queue-priority 50
smtp-hosts lookup-mx:yahoo.com.sg
connect-timeout 2m


SUGGESTION: read manual again, then read again as needed.

 

[snyyyz]

Hi KwarkAds,

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. Really appreciated.

I am 100% with you and I know the stuff you're telling me. But it wasn't a clear answer to my question.

I've got the Yahoo, AOL + other domains handled by mx-roll-up list. The config above is just a few lines out of many.

Perhaps I wasn't clear with my question - my apologies for that.

My question was whether to split them out into 4 different queues instead of one global hotmail.queue. Since the different Hotmail owned domains have separate MX Records (and IP's), just like Yahoo splits by continent. Here Hotmail splits by EU and the domain itself in the MX Record.

And whether the Hotmail/Microsoft would accept that my Mail server would connect, let's say 2 SMTP connections with 100 messages per connection, per domain (hotmail/live/....). Or it would bounce back due to too many connections.

Basically, does the Microsoft server allow to handle the 4 mail domains they own separately? If yes, we're talking greater delivery speed and so on - That's why I am asking. To hear if anyone have experience with this and if the Hotmail domains can be queued per domain without being punished by Hotmail/Microsoft.

 

[Dark.banana]

hi guy any one knows how to change the outgoing port in PMTA ? i got vultr for hosting and they block port 25 automatically for you

 

[Mass Mailer]

in powermta config file you can set any port you want. If you want to do bulkmailing dont use vultr or ovh or any vps cheap providers they will kick you out if found doing bulk mails so rather that i would say try bulkmailvps, dailysender, cloudsmtpservers they can help you to do non stop bulk mailing with no port blocks. And all settings will be done by them.