On Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 02:34:25PM +0000, mick wrote: [snip tale of woe]
The reason I am seeking advice here is that some of you also run email servers (or may have dome so in the past). Ideally I would like to continue to run my own server. I like the control and flexibility it gives me. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so in the face of the kind of opposition I see. I see only two options.
- I find a new VPS provider which can guarantee that its network
will not be blocked by lazy idiots and I move to them.
or
- I give up and move my email to a third party provider (such as
Ionos)
There is a third way. I run a postfix server on my desktop machine at home (it could as well be a Raspberry Pi if you don't want to leave your desktop machine on all the time). It receives E-Mail for my domain like any other SMTP server, it *sends* E-Mail via my hosting provider's 'Smart host' server and thus it's my hosting provider has to jump through the hoops you're hitting.
I think this gives you much of what you want without (some of) the hassle.
Obviously it requires:-
A domain you own whose MX record can be pointed at your home's internet connection.
A route through your NAT/Firewall to a machine running the mail server.
A machine that is able to be left on all the time which is reasonably reliable. (Though I have found that reboots and updates don't cause any serious problems with the short break in service they cause)
I've been doing this for quite a few years now and have had no significant problems.