Self hosting? I can't even visit simple static web pages without Cloudflare blocking me because my web browser isn't sufficiently trackable. There's no way they're letting self-hosted email messages get through.
Is it? Last time I tried to self-host my email I did. I had DKIM, DMARC and SPF set up correctly as verified by multiple sites, but I couldnt't get reliable delivery to any Microsoft-hopsted mailboxes. Every other provider I tested was perfectly happy with my mail, unfortunately MS is too big a provider to ignore them.
> What matters is domain age, IP, and compliance with DKIM/DMARC.
Maybe it was my IP, but I cycled a few with my hosting provider and none of them made a difference. If I am unable to reliable obtain a 'trusted' IP, what good does it do?
I switched to hosted email and all my delivery issues were gone.
There are tools that can check if your IP is on a blacklist [1].
Also, my experience with self-hosting email is that if you get people to email you first from their domain, and you reply to them, then you are not going to be blocked. Of course, this won't work if you send a lot of cold emails.
>> What matters is domain age, IP, and compliance with DKIM/DMARC.
>Maybe it was my IP, but I cycled a few with my hosting provider and none of them made a difference. If I am unable to reliable obtain a 'trusted' IP, what good does it do?
That's true. I have a Class C IP range and a domain registered for 30 years and yet Gmail still started ignoring my email server a couple of years ago...
What is there to prove? You can register your own domain (avoid exotic TLDs), wait a few months to build trust, and use an email setup script like Luke Smith's to set up Postfix/Dovecot.
Before you start sending email, use mail-tester.com to check that DKIM is correctly set up and that your IP is not blacklisted.
I would like to know what your're running, too, in case I can find a better workaround.
I'm running MX Linux, Arch Linux, and FreeBSD, and usually use Seamonkey or Pale Moon, and if I absolutely have to I use Thorium.
Some websites using Cloudflare services, or other similar services, first load a landing page, historically with a captcha checkbox to verify that I'm human that would let me through, after completing. More recently, it'll outright say that I am denied access, or when I check the box it switches to a throbber that spins indefinitely, or it unchecks itself.
Some web pages, like eBay, will let me through initially, then at some point all tabs I have open will simultaneously switch to an unpassable captcha.
