SMTP with Amazon SES Problem

[franklinfick]

I was thinking about getting a VPS with 1and1 hosting as recomended on the hosting page

but I found this in the forum:
1and1 is blocking smtp connections from the server

-----------------------------
After many emails to 1&1 tech support and my own experience (fsockopen: connection could not be made) it is clear that they are blocking connections from the web server to the SMTP host on both ports 25 and 587.  ListMail does support SMTP authorization - it works with practically -every- other host and used to work on 1&1.  Now, however, it appears 1&1 has a new policy in place to prevent connections to SMTP made from scripts on their web servers.  This can be implemented with a local firewall or other IP-based rule.
----------------------------------------------


is this still true?
so that if I get a vps with 1and1 -- I will not be able to send mail throguh their smtp?


thanks for your input


Franklin

[franklinfick]

i am revisiting this topic-- as I am trying again after some years to get SES to work with my listmailpro instalation

i switched hosts

and tested the code that was provided earlier

Code: [Select]

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
$sock=fsockopen('tls://email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com',465);
if($sock) echo "Socket established\n"; else exit("Socket could not be established\n");
echo fgets($sock,1024);
echo "> EHLO localhost\n";
fputs($sock,"EHLO localhost\r\n");
$line='';
while(substr($line,3,1)!==' '){
        $line=fgets($sock,1024);
        echo $line;
}

this is working and not giving me any error messages..


================================


I set up my domain and emails in Amazon SES
and got my smtp credentials
--- i tested these credentials in thunderbird--
and i have no problem signing into the amazon ses server and sending email

putting the smtp credentials into listmailpro configuration screen:
testing the mail connection gives:

Testing mail servers..

[Bounce Handling]
Is enabled?  No (you should probably configure it)

[SMTP Server]
Is enabled?  Yes
Connecting to SMTP server.. Connected!
Could not say EHLO.

The SMTP server is not configured correctly. Check your settings.


============================


trying to send a mass email
(to a test list and only one test subscriber)
I get a failed error message that smtp was not set up correctly

log file shows:
> EHLO localhost





=================================



I get the same error message when testing mail settings and sending a test email to a list
when AUTH? is checked and when it is not checked...



Is there something simple that I am missing?



Franklin

[DW]

Hi Franklin,

I'm not sure amazon is accepting the connection as there is no SMTP greeting in the log.

Try setting the SMTP host in LMP to tls://email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and port to 465.

Regards

[BGSWebDesign]

Hi Franklin,

Did you get this working with Amazon SES?  I'm interested in knowing if you had success with it, or not?  Also, which host are you using?  I would not attempt it unless I was at least on VPS.

[steve4]

FYI. If anyone is interested Amazon SES is not very friendly if you run a commercial operation. I had my account suspended saying I didn't conform with their terms of service. When I looked back over them it says that you can't do any commercial or advertising mailing through it. If you are and it is working it might just be a matter of time or a few people marking your emails as spam until you are suspended as I was good for some months before it happened and they didn't want to look at reconsidering even though I follow all the rules and only mail people who sign up with unsubscribe links on all my mails.

[BGSWebDesign]

Steve,

Amazon SES does allow all types of email, you can see that here:
https://aws.amazon.com/ses/faqs/

Where it says:

Amazon SES can reliably deliver merchandising, subscription, transactional, and notification email messages.

And in their AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) here:
https://aws.amazon.com/aup/

Maybe you misread this part about promotions, but the kind they do NOT allow are clearly indicated:

promotions (e.g., make-money-fast schemes, ponzi and pyramid schemes, phishing, or pharming)

I've had some issues with Amazon SES, that I've always been able to clear up, usually it's when I've sent to an older list (with bounce rates over 5%), etc...
I've been sending with Amazon SES for over 3 years and my Quota is at the highest you can go with over 1 M (1 million) emails/day maximum, so you can see
I am not experiencing problems sending through them.

Either way, if you mail responsibly and you keep your bounce rate down by doing better Email verification, such as using a service like:
http://www.bulkemailchecker.com/ or:
https://email-verify.my-addr.com/
you should be fine.

I think you may have misread their terms, or maybe confused their SMS (text message) terms which do say that you cannot send promotions, here:
https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/

Which clearly do say you cannot use Amazon SNS, or SMS messages for

advertisements or promotions for commercial products, goods or services; or

Either way, I've been looking at others services which might fill in, and you might want to consider this, I've had a look at SparkPost which seems
to be very good at deliverability, and may not have as many issues with your sending, you can find out more at: 
https://www.sparkpost.com/

Good luck, let us know how it turns out for you...