Mail server changes

Updated May 8, 2023: I have updated pile.org to use email server authentication and authorization (see below). If you send email from an @pile.org email address, you now need to use the correct mail servers to help keep your messages from bouncing or being flagged as spam. Please get in touch with me, and I’ll help you get set up!

(Original post follows. After that, for the super-nerds, are some mail headers demonstrating that this all works. At some point, I might set up some kind of DMARC policy, but not tonight.)

Do you send email from an @pile.org email address? Do we know each other, and have we quite possibly had beers together? Get in touch with me before Monday evening Pacific time, May 8, 2023, at my four-letter nickname @pile.org (or however you normally reach me).

I’ve had a few too many emails rejected or dropped into spam folders because I haven’t implemented SPF or DKIM for the domain. It’s long past time to change this, and my current plan is to do it the evening of Monday, May 8. You and I will each need to make a couple changes, so reach out and we’ll get it all sorted — it should be pretty simple.

If you try to send from an @pile.org address after I make the change, without having gotten in touch with me and sorted things out, your emails will have a higher chance of getting rejected as spam by the recipient’s email server (and getting bounced back to you) and/or possibly client (and silently dropping into their spam folder).

(On the back end, I’ll need to make some DNS changes, and will need to set you up with an account that lets you authenticate to the SMTP server for pile.org. You’ll need to change your mail client to send mail via that server.)

Here are some mail headers from Gmail’s receipt of a message sent with the new SPF and DKIM configuration.

Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of xxxx@pile.org designates 23.83.209.24 as permitted sender) client-ip=23.83.209.24;