email relay

[nab]

Good Day everyone

I am launching a new site were users are allowed to email each other directly through my site being offered as an options. However I do not want to create an email account for every individual who register's on my site, I want the users to use the email account that they registered with for communicating. So for example if Tom registered on my site using the email tomXYZ@somedomain.com and linda registered using the email linda123@someotherdomian.com then i want to be able to allow Tom to email linda through my site but I dont want to manage any email boxes so the email would go from Tom email to Linda's email directly somehow relayed through my site or a 3rd party site. I am expecting a high volume of users. Do you know what is the easiest and cheap way of doing this.

I also will be doing email blasts, so if the solution can accommodate that feature that will be great. thank you in advance for your help.

 

[EQ Admin]

Hi nab,

For the blasts try the bulk email service from LuxSci

Allowing users of your web site to send email shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as the feature has some anti-abuse features built into it. There is nothing you can do about domains that set policy that doesn't include your server in the list of allowed servers for sending email as their domain (SPF) Within your control you can make sure they confirm their email addresses before they can send From it, and rate limit how many emails they can send over a reasonable period of time.

to Email Questions!

 

[nab]

thanks for your answer I must admit i am somewhat of a novice here, my question is how do I allow these users to send email to each other do i have to have an exchange server on mysite, so for example on this site if i click on your name there is an option to send a private message to you, how is the machnisim to do that there has to be some sort of email relay and that is what i am trying to achieve, again appreciate your help

by the way my site is hosted with godday and i am anticipating hi email volume

 

[EQ Admin]

nab,

Make sure your server is able to support the expected "high volume"

You do not need your own mail server for users to be able to email each other.

The MTA installed on your server should be capable of relaying email to the internet.

To get the actual email created and sent a simple web form that can create the email and set the fields correctly should do the trick.

Do you want them to have to login to your site to check the email / message, or is it OK for your system to just be a script that sends an email?

 

[nab]

So I assume by MTA is mail transfer agent , like send mail. the question is my main web server is a windows server not unix. Does windows server have an MTA server.

and if you have a link that can show me how to set it up that will be great. again greatly appreciate your help

 

[EQ Admin]

Hello,

Yes, your Windows might have the Windows sendmail on it.

Do you have more than 1 server?

By default the relaying should work.

Here are directions if you have multiple servers and need t pick one as your relay:

How to Configure a Windows Server 2003 Server as a Relay Server or Smart Host

If you want to relay through a service instead of direct to the internet, see the LuxSci link above.

You would then point your windows server to use the LuxSci relay as your outgoing mail server so that your Windows mail queues don't blow up when sending large amounts of email.

 

[nab]

thank you truly appriciate your help