"Easiest" email provider

[robcarver17]

So I seem to have let my original domain (systematictrading.org) lapse, and I can't really be bothered to reclaim it. It just means people who pick up second hand copies of my first book will have to google search me (I'm slightly worried about impersonation but hopefully that won't happen). But I've also lost the associated email, which is what I was using to email myself from pst.

Now I have a bunch of other emails, but they're eithier university or gmail/gsuite. It seems to be an absolute pain to send emails from gmail - I've tried in the past - and I'd rather just have an email I use only for this purpose. This is also easier from a security perspective. But what I'm looking for is an email provider that doesn't require me to jump through 2FA/API key hoops like gmail does.

Any ideas?

[ak2k]

If you'd like a service for sending automated emails, Mailgun is a solid and reasonably priced choice. Your PST usage may even fall within its free tier.

For receiving messages at your custom domain, I might stay with G Suite (since you mentioned you already have such an account), and adding domain aliases is free IIRC.

[ak2k]

In my experience, once SPF/DMARC are configured for the domain designating Mailgun as a permitted sender, deliverability to gmail/gsuite has been excellent. It's an extra step to configure, but it eliminates the "suspicious" warning.

[tgibson11]

Can you elaborate? I am not familiar with SPF/DMARC, but a quick Google search leads me to believe that this would only be possible if I am sending from a domain that I own.

Is it possible when sending from a postmasterblahblahblah.mailgun.org domain?

[ak2k]

Thanks for raising this clarification. Yes, I am referring to configuring mailgun to send from a (sub-)domain that I own rather than just running with the test domains that mailgun provides. Indeed, to do so, you need to control the DNS to add the records. If you have any custom domain at all, you can configure the DNS records and Mailgun to use a new subdomain (e.g. outbound.tgibson11.com) if ever you wished to implement this without potentially disrupting an existing domain configuration.

Mailgun provides a walk-through (https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026833053-Domain-Verification-Walkthrough) and some troubleshooting tips (https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011565514-How-Do-I-Verify-My-Domain-and-Other-DNS-Questions).

[robcarver17]

I did look at mailgun, but they don't seem to have a free teir, just a one month trial

[ak2k]

they don't seem to have a free teir

They've indeed aimed to hide it post acquisition, but this describes how to sign up for the Mailgun free tier (flex / Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG)) by downgrading after your trial: https://forum.ghost.org/t/solved-mailgun-has-quietly-removed-their-pay-as-you-go-offer-any-new-option-to-be-integrated-with-ghosts-native-newsletter/32850/6

Further references:
https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048661093-How-does-PAYG-billing-work-
https://help.mailgun.com/hc/en-us/articles/203068914-What-Are-the-Differences-Between-the-Free-and-Flex-Plans-

[dcwtx]

Hi all, I have run a mail server out of my house since about 2010 (many various reasons...). My ISP blocks outbound port 25, so I have had to use an intermediary to send email out to the world... which has been fine and I've done it for a long enough time I consider it forever. I use DuoCircle duocircle.com Outbound SMTP service - it is $100/year. You can choose the port you relay into to avoid local blocks - for example port 10025.

It is actually possible to relay through pretty much any host that you have access to - for example I could have used the email service that my ISP makes available to me, or even gmail...

It is pretty easy to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC if you need it on the receipt side, but you need to set up a domain somewhere and add txt records to it. I manage all that with Google Domains, it is pretty simple.

All that said, to the extent that all of this is internal to your local network, it is really easy to set up postfix somewhere and queue email there. Then you'd set up pst/smtplib to send messages to your local server with postfix on it, and it would never hit the internet at large and provided you don't expose it to the outside world you could forget about SPF etc. If you set up Dovecot along with postfix you could read it with your favorite mail app. Both are really easy to do, and there are even Docker containers with all that set up already.

You wouldn't be able to access that from outside your local domain unless you set up VPN access into it, which is also really easy to do (but depends on your gateway/router hardware).

[robcarver17]

I knew someone would suggest this, but this is way too much work for what I want to do!

[dcwtx]

FYI - you are still listed as the domain owner... https://domains.google.com/registrar/search/whois/systematictrading.org?hl=en&_ga=2.163781887.1737654965.1681415333-1895991834.1681415333&searchTerm=systematictrading.org. Might be worth contacting "domain monster" and getting it back. There are protections against squatters especially for a longstanding holder with a public presence.

[robcarver17]

I had always planned on getting rid of that domain at some point but thanks

[bug-or-feature]

Sharing my experiences:

I own a bunch of domains and pay for a hosting service, so initially for pysystemtrade I used the mail service provided by them. That was all fine until one day I made a particularly bad mistake while testing/debugging some new PST code, which caused around 50 critical emails to be send in a few seconds. That caused the hosting company to blacklist that email address, they thought I was sending spam. Fair enough.

I needed to setup a replacement quickly, so went with Google/Gmail. It was a little convoluted to get it setup, but it works fine once configured. I have a dedicated Gmail address just for PST. Google's own docs are here, and there's a pretty good guide here. Navigating to the App Password section has changed slightly though, you need to go:

Select your Profile icon > Manage Your Google Account > Security > 2 - Step Verification > App passwords

[TobiasAntiGravity]

FWIW; Someone in here (I thought it was @tgibson11) whom recommended sendinblue.com. So I tried that. Have been using it for several months and can confirm that it works and that it is free...

[robcarver17]

Went with gmail in the end, with a new email address (like I need another one!) partly as it seems more secure, partly because I don't really want to turn on 2FA for my main email address and that is now the only way to get an app password.