DigitalOcean, Cloudflare and SES.

[Artonn]

So I'm quite new to this and trying to understand how to set this up probably.

I currently have my droplet setup and running, the forum is accessible. My Cloudflare is connected as well.

What I'm a little confused about is how to properly setup my SES.

I thinking about how you guys have setup mails like forum@xxx.com to sent from and receive email, from what I can see SES is primarily a service to send email with and not really a inbox. Also how to handle stuff like bounce.

Sorry if my question is very vague, I find the subject a bit complex. Feel free to ask me to elaborate.

 

[TPerry]

There are several discussions pertaining to this on this site.
One of which is here

XF 2.2 - Configure Amazon SES in our Xenforo forum

Hi I created new amazon SES account, verified the domain, created SMTP, and moved the account out of the sandbox. I think that our SES is ready. Then in Email options, I changed the method to SMTP with SES information: Now when I try to send test email through Contact page, I got this...

xenforo.com

and another

Amazon SES questions

A few SES questions Can we still use the bounce handler in XF? When it is set up if we have been using an email client like Thunderbird to send and receive non-transactional emails can we still use that to send, or does that count toward SES billing? In other words does all mail now go through...

xenforo.com

 

[Artonn]

There are several discussions pertaining to this on this site.
One of which is here

XF 2.2 - Configure Amazon SES in our Xenforo forum

Hi I created new amazon SES account, verified the domain, created SMTP, and moved the account out of the sandbox. I think that our SES is ready. Then in Email options, I changed the method to SMTP with SES information: Now when I try to send test email through Contact page, I got this...

xenforo.com

and another

Amazon SES questions

A few SES questions Can we still use the bounce handler in XF? When it is set up if we have been using an email client like Thunderbird to send and receive non-transactional emails can we still use that to send, or does that count toward SES billing? In other words does all mail now go through...

xenforo.com

Thank you, been reading through it.

I have a little trouble understanding how they setup mails like admin@xxx.dk and get them verified. From what I understand, you need to have them already set up somewhere to actually be able to verify them.

I have a little weird setup where I am using a danish domain (.dk) from a danish hosting, where my nameservers for that domain is now pointing to cloudflare. I'm just wondering how they did it? So far the only way I see myself doing it is paying for a mail service inbox where I can receive those mails and verify them for the emails i want to set up like forum@xxx.dk, admin@xxx.dk, no-reply@xxx.dk.

 

[TPerry]

I have a little trouble understanding how they setup mails like admin@xxx.dk and get them verified. From what I understand, you need to have them already set up somewhere to actually be able to verify them.

It depends.. is your admin@ address an actual email address you will be monitoring and responding to? I think I may have had to set the no_reply one up as an alias, but once it was confirmed deleted it.
I use a no_reply address for transactional emails (and verified it) and since it is a no_reply, any responses to it are set to go to the bit-bucket. If folks are too stupid to see it's a no-reply address and they reply to it, I really have no interest in pursuing any contact with them. My "contact us" link uses a monitored email address.

As for SES, I simply set it to use a sub-domain of my main domain (think it was mail.astrowhat.com but I honestly don't remember). I already had a primary MTA set up for my astrowhat.com domain, and then simply created the necessary MTA entries in my DNS configuration for the sub-domain.

My Admin, designated user, and bounced/unsubscribe are hosted at an alternative solution provider since I already had a spare domain I could use them them.

 

[Artonn]

It depends.. is your admin@ address an actual email address you will be monitoring and responding to? I think I may have had to set the no_reply one up as an alias, but once it was confirmed deleted it.
I use a no_reply address for transactional emails (and verified it) and since it is a no_reply, any responses to it are set to go to the bit-bucket. If folks are too stupid to see it's a no-reply address and they reply to it, I really have no interest in pursuing any contact with them. My "contact us" link uses a monitored email address.

As for SES, I simply set it to use a sub-domain of my main domain (think it was mail.astrowhat.com but I honestly don't remember). I already had a primary MTA set up for my astrowhat.com domain, and then simply created the necessary MTA entries in my DNS configuration for the sub-domain.

My Admin, designated user, and bounced/unsubscribe are hosted at an alternative solution provider since I already had a spare domain I could use them them.

I was not planning on using admin@ for anything really, maybe any kind of administrational stuff. I wanted to be able to have an inbox for forum@ as I planned to be sending account activations and so on from that one from xenforo, but also just send out emails to a specific user if needed.

So I assume that my forum@ will be a transactional email. From what I understand I need to pay a mail service in order to set up admin@, forum@, bounched@ unsubscribe@ mails, so I can recieve those bounces and replies somewhere? I'm trying to understand how to set this up, also the cheapest way possible while still making sense.

So I guess what I need to set up is:
admin@ for admin related stuff
forum@ communication with users and vertifications and so on.
bounce@ ?
unsubscribe@ ?
dmarcreports@ I've also read that u recieve dmarcreports, so maybe an inbox for that too ?

Then verify them on SES, and use the forum@ SMTP to send mails from the forum email transport method. After that i need to enable "Automated bounced email handler" and "Automated unsubscribe email handler" and use POP3, IMAP to connect them to the mail service, which from here should work automatically regarding to handle unsubscribe and bounces?

Would this be the correct procedure, or am I missing something? Sorry for all my questions, I find it a bit hard to understand how to set this up to work correctly.

 

[TPerry]

I was not planning on using admin@ for anything really

I actually use that for my "admin" account, which is basically an unused position #1 account. It's an alias for my main email account.

I wanted to be able to have an inbox for forum@ as I planned to be sending account activations and so on from that one from xenforo, but also just send out emails to a specific user if needed.

Which is what I use my no-reply email address for. If they feel they need to contact me, they can use the "contact us" link on the site (which BTW is set to use the admin@ alias address I have set up).

So I guess what I need to set up is:

DMarc can be set at any address you want to use... even a free gmail account.

The only emails you need to verify via SES are ones that you actually use in your transactions.

 

[Artonn]

I actually use that for my "admin" account, which is basically an unused position #1 account. It's an alias for my main email account.


Which is what I use my no-reply email address for. If they feel they need to contact me, they can use the "contact us" link on the site (which BTW is set to use the admin@ alias address I have set up).


DMarc can be set at any address you want to use... even a free gmail account.

The only emails you need to verify via SES are ones that you actually use in your transactions.

I see how you've set up your part, and i guess up to the individual on how they want to set it up.

I'm more confused about the SES, inbox, Cloudflare and droplet connection.

I still got my namecheap account, as far as I understand I could simply on my cloudflare dns make the records necessary to connect to namecheaps roundcube mail service. Then go on SES and enter the email accounts I've created, where namecheap would recieve the emails for me to press the confirmation link.

Once those are setup I can connect bounce and unsubscribe through POP3 on the namecheap mail servers and set the email transport method for the forum to the SMTP provided by SES ?

I just really can't make sense on how this process should be handled correctly.

 

[fly]

I was not planning on using admin@ for anything really, maybe any kind of administrational stuff. I wanted to be able to have an inbox for forum@ as I planned to be sending account activations and so on from that one from xenforo, but also just send out emails to a specific user if needed.

So I assume that my forum@ will be a transactional email. From what I understand I need to pay a mail service in order to set up admin@, forum@, bounched@ unsubscribe@ mails, so I can recieve those bounces and replies somewhere? I'm trying to understand how to set this up, also the cheapest way possible while still making sense.

So I guess what I need to set up is:
admin@ for admin related stuff
forum@ communication with users and vertifications and so on.
bounce@ ?
unsubscribe@ ?
dmarcreports@ I've also read that u recieve dmarcreports, so maybe an inbox for that too ?

Then verify them on SES, and use the forum@ SMTP to send mails from the forum email transport method. After that i need to enable "Automated bounced email handler" and "Automated unsubscribe email handler" and use POP3, IMAP to connect them to the mail service, which from here should work automatically regarding to handle unsubscribe and bounces?

Would this be the correct procedure, or am I missing something? Sorry for all my questions, I find it a bit hard to understand how to set this up to work correctly.

Just verify the domain on AWS with DNS records. That way you can send from any email address @yourdomain.com. And if you need to receive email, try using something like Zoho - which is free for up to five accounts. And finally, use Cloudflare for DNS, and specifically DMARC.

 

[Artonn]

Just verify the domain on AWS with DNS records. That way you can send from any email address @yourdomain.com. And if you need to receive email, try using something like Zoho - which is free for up to five accounts. And finally, use Cloudflare for DNS, and specifically DMARC.

Oh so basically take my main domain xxx.dk

get it verified and then I can send mails freely from the forum?

Then to make xenforo handle bounces and unsubscribe, I need to create the accounts with Zoho?

 

[TPerry]

try using something like Zoho - which is free for up to five accounts.

I think now that is ONLY for web access... if you need POP/IMAP access, you have to pay. I lucked out and am grandfathered in with them.

 

[TPerry]

Then to make xenforo handle bounces and unsubscribe, I need to create the accounts with Zoho?

These accounts can be created with any provider that offers POP/IMAP access... and pretty sure that you can use something as simple as GMail.

 

[Artonn]

These accounts can be created with any provider that offers POP/IMAP access... and pretty sure that you can use something as simple as GMail.

I see it's all making more sense for me now.

Will there be any issues with using amazon ses smtp sending out mails and using namecheap mail service for recieving emails and responding to them?

 

[TPerry]

I see it's all making more sense for me now.

Will there be any issues with using amazon ses smtp sending out mails and using namecheap mail service for recieving emails and responding to them?

As long as your SES instance is set up on a sub-domain (which I think they require, but it's been a while since I did mine) and your DNS entries (for MX and such) are correct for both the sub-domain and your main domain there should not be. It's basically what most of us are doing currently, just using different providers for the bounce/unsubscribe and normal site account emails that use that domain extension for their email address.

 

[Artonn]

As long as your SES instance is set up on a sub-domain (which I think they require, but it's been a while since I did mine) and your DNS entries (for MX and such) are correct for both the sub-domain and your main domain there should not be. It's basically what most of us are doing currently, just using different providers for the bounce/unsubscribe and normal site account emails that use that domain extension for their email address.

Setup on a subdomain? Why would I need to set dns up on a sub domain, I am a little confused about that?

 

[TPerry]

Setup on a subdomain? Why would I need to set dns up on a sub domain, I am a little confused about that?

Amazon SES is set as an MTA on a sub-domain of your main domain usually... you can't have it set up as your primary domain since that servers your site. You can set it up on any domain you own also as long as that domain is not hosting a website.

It's primarily for your MX entry in your DNS if you are already hosting your primary mail via another MTA solution.

 

[Wildcat Media]

I use a no_reply address for transactional emails (and verified it) and since it is a no_reply, any responses to it are set to go to the bit-bucket. If folks are too stupid to see it's a no-reply address and they reply to it, I really have no interest in pursuing any contact with them.

One of my moderators: "We should probably be checking the no-reply address in case any legitimate emails get sent as a reply."

Me: "If they are stupid enough to reply to a no-reply email address with the message clearly saying not to reply to it..."

(Never mind that I already had "no-reply" messages sent to the bit dumpster.)