SMTP Server setting up

If you ever tried to send email to a large list of your subscribers, you will know... It's not as easy as it seems.

Usually, when you first start, you have no experience and no knowledge of how this whole email works. You know, you just press the "Send" button, and your email goes away. What could be the problem with that? I have done it thousand times. Sure, I say, no problem. Knock your socks off, do it with your list. Press the "Send" button ten thousand times... per week... and also design your messages, promote your product and do all other stuff at the same time. It is when your list grows bigger, you start to ask questions.

By the time you end reading this, I will leave you with all the tools necessary for having your own SMTP server set up. You will know the "secrets" of SMTP setting up and what you need to get and more importantly where to get it and how to tie this all together.

Let me first spill out all the options that you have, when you have a large mailing list of at least a 1000 subscribers and you need to periodically send them some information:

Use an email service provider like Aweber, Constant Contact and such. Anyone who looked at their prices and limitations would be very surprised. They are OK at the beginning, because they do all the work for you, when you are just starting out and you know nothing in the area. Read their fine print. They have very enticing INTRODUCTORY prices, but it grows very high very fast. Also they are sitting on a shared server. There are 300 or more clients serviced by the same server. One of them sends spam and your entire IP is blacklisted by most major providers automatically. Taking you and 298 other poor sods down the drain with them.
You can use your Internet Provider or one of the free relays like GMail or Yahoo. These guys have extremely limited accounts. Usually, you cannot send more than 100 emails per day with them. This is not even an option that we are going to discuss here, at least not for a serious business. It's just not enough. In addition, some free relays may stick in their advertisements at the end of each of your emails. This simply will not do.

Your options are really between full service providers and SMTP setting up and configuring it on your own computer. At this point many people would say: "I don't know what you are gibbering about. What is this SMTP stuff?" That is an acronym for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It's the server that actually delivers your email message. It's your equivalent of a mailman in the Internet sense. Every email goes through one or more of those even if you do not see it and do not know it. You connect to it in your Outlook or whatever mail client you are using. Remember that "host name" in the settings? That's the one.

What do you get, when you own a SMTP server:

You are the master of your email. You control what, where, how often, how many, at what speed and why. Nobody is your boss, you do not share your server with 300 other people and you do not depend on them.
Price. You do not pay extra for more messages, more subscribers, more relays. You do not have to worry about fitting into one of the borders set by email providers. You have your server and your Internet connection, that's it, you do not pay anything extra whether you are sending one or one million emails. You are not limited.
No time limits. Your server is completely yours, you can send any time you like.
Speed is not limited. Send as fast or as slow as you like, configure throttling if you want or if you have a time critical message like invoice or special sale notification, it's going full speed.
The benefits are clear, so lets see what do you need to configure your SMTP?
Naturally you would need to get the SMTP server software. I will now shamelessly pitch my own email delivery server here, because I wrote it, I know it's good and easy to use. I will reluctantly agree however, that you can use any other SMTP server that you like. The protocol is basically standard.
You would need free, clear, open connection on port 25. Port 25 in Internet is reserved for SMTP traffic. It is a standard port and is always used just for email. You need to have it open. This is done by your provider. You just need to tell them that you need it. Many of the larger providers block it specifically to force you to use their own SMTP server. This will not do, check it (*** a shameless plug: Our email delivery server checks all that automatically).
You need a static IP address. If you have a regular DSL or Cable Internet connection, chances are, you have a dynamic IP address. You always get a different IP every time you connect to the Internet. This will not do. When setting up SMTP, you need to get a static IP from your Internet provider. These run for $0-$5 bucks a month. I personally use TekSavvy. They are good and they have static IP for under $3 bucks. If it's more, this is a rip off. Tell your provider to take a hike and sign up with a different one. I saw some providers pulling tricks like making you go to a "business" Internet instead of their regular Internet. Let me tell you, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.

You don't care how it's called, right? Ultra super cool business Internet, or just Internet. What do you care? The wire is the same, company is the same, equipment is the same, support is the same. Oh yeah, it costs much more... Duh...
If you want to receive your email on your server as well, you need a domain name. Something like mycoolcompany.com. That goes for $1-$10 bucks a year. I personally use Godaddy to buy my domains. If you have a domain name already, you need to correctly set up an MX record... Huh??? MX what? No worries, it is done by your provider, not by you, so forget I even said that. You just tell them to point your domain to your static IP you just got. Remember, you need this only if you want to receive email on that domain. When setting up SMTP, decide if you will be sending and receiving or just sending. This will determine if you even need this.
You want to provision a good, reliable, speedy outgoing Internet connection. Providers always advertise incoming speed very well, but tend to forget the outgoing speed completely. SMTP setting up requires good, stable connection, so that you can send as many messages as you would like. Make sure you are not locked in or limited and can increase the speed if needed. This again comes from your Internet provider.

That's it. Now let me make an easy to-do list. I said you can set up SMTP server in under two days. Most of the time, you can get it in two hours!!! I just over allocated for emergencies. So here goes:

If you have an Internet connection already or when shopping for a new Internet connection, call your provider and ask them about the following:
1. Do they have port 25 open for SMTP traffic?
2. Can they provide you with a static IP address and how much does it cost?
They must provide you all of that and every provider CAN do that. From my experience and experience of my clients, I find, that sometimes when you call them, first level of support doesn't have a clue about it. They are simply not trained to answer these kinds of questions. If they answer that they cannot do it or they don't know, just hang up and call again. This particular support rep is useless, it is faster to try to call back and try another one.
If you want to receive mail to your domain (you can always change the "From:" name to be any domain you like. You may decide to receive your replies to some other domain or to your Internet provider's SMTP server), go to Godaddy or anybody else and buy a domain. Tell them to point your domain records to your static IP you have just received in the previous step.
Configure SMTP server to respond to this domain you have just purchased.