Using external email providers for email sending

[davo88]

Is anyone using SMTP to send their email via an external provider and successfully having all email delivered to all their members' accounts?

I have been wrestling with authentication issues (DKIM, SPF etc) full time for a week and many of them have been largely solved. The host has been very helpful. But the problems associated with being on a shared server seem like it is always going to cause problems - the shared IP appearing on spam blacklists and so forth.

So I am wondering if anyone has a working email setup they can recommend. I have been reading about people using Gmail here today and will try that next. 
  

[vbgamer45]

I wouldn't suggest gmail for any busy forum. you will be limited to a couple hundred emails a day. Not sure if you can even use it since requires oauth or app passwords

[davo88]

It's not a very busy forum, I think a couple of hundred emails a day would easily cover it. 

But the second point you raise about 'oauth or app passwords'. Is it not possible to enter a Gmail app password into the SMF SMTP settings?

[vbgamer45]

It could be, myself haven't tried it.

[casper32]

I use SMTP, there was no problem

[davo88]

I use SMTP, there was no problem

To which email server? - your domain's or an external one?

[casper32]

to my domain

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

SMTP is always the preferred method, and using SMTP also allows you to use external email providers, but GMail in particular is known to be picky and demanding, and I wouldn't recommend GMail for this.

[davo88]

.... GMail in particular is known to be picky and demanding, and I wouldn't recommend GMail for this.

Managed to get Gmail working today and am still testing it. We were previously sending mail via PHP and the domain email addresses but Gmail was rejecting quite a lot. So I figure sending via Gmail might solve that problem. How have you found it to be picky and demanding?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Well, if you can get gmail to work and can work it's limits, it's fine. But it does have strict requirements, and is very quick to label stuff as spam.

This is basically the same issue you had earlier when sending to Gmail, but in reverse. You sent mail through PHP, and Gmail doesn't usually like that (because hosts don't often configure PHP-mail with correct headers etc. ) and Gmail sees that.

The fix would be to use SMTP, local e-mail server, and fix SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for the sending domain.

https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126?hl=en