smtp ip reputation matters

Smtp server ip address reputation is important to reach the inbox.

I spent the last few days of 2020
setting up a “simplified RealSender” service.

The reason is that RealSender works well
but it has so many features and options
to scare users with simple needs.

So I decided to develop a basic service,
that a user can simply buy without thinking too much.

The low price goal led me to evaluate a large hosting provider.
I have been using it since 2015 for other activities, I consider it reliable.

After three days of setup and documentation,
I carried out the final tests by sending messages to the most popular mailboxes,
like Gmail and Hotmail. They all went to the Spam/Junk folder.

I double-checked the configuration, specifically the email authentication:
SPF, DKIM and DMARC. They were all fine.

In the RealSender documentation I have a “delivery troubleshooting guide”,
with a list of websites that allow you to check the reputation of the smtp server
with respect to private blacklists, which could affect email delivery,
such as: Symantec, McAfee, Barracuda, Mail-Abuse and Senderbase (now Talos Intelligence).

At first, I didn’t find anything, until the reputation check on Senderbase, which highlighted
a bad reputation of the IP class, with many IPs marked as “poor email reputation”:
Senderbase/Talos IP & Domain Reputation Overview

There may be other reasons, such as using a newly registered domain name.
I will set up a new smtp server with the hosting provider used for RealSender,
to see what happens. I will update you next week.