Topic: SMTP Big Picture setup

[mfabache]

Hi all!

Testing SMF has been going well and I am impressed!  The last stickler seems to be mail notifications.
I just realized I need to set that up.

My environment is hosted on AWS and I have my domain via Route 53

Couple of questions/guidance:

1. If I am starting fresh, should I choose PHP or SMTP?
2. If my domain is hxxp:www.shazam.com [nonactive], how can I get email set from 'noreply@shazam.com' for the notifications?
3. Do I need to purchase some email hosting site to handle my mail, if true, seems I just feed the email stream thru the mailer (hosting site)?
4. I do not think I need to configure MX records as I will just point to the mailer/hosting site  (networking and mail are definitely my weak areas), correct?
5. Is there an easy way to test (other than having someone reply to my topics or vice versa)?

Thanks for looking.

[mfabache]

Update:

I thought I would be adventurous and setup a local MTA on the AWS server running SMF.  I followed the directions here:

hxxp:www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-and-configure-postfix-as-a-send-only-smtp-server-on-ubuntu-14-04 [nonactive]

and I can successfully send email, such as:  echo "This is the body of the email" | mail -s "This is the subject line" user@domain.com

Now I cannot figure how to use that in the SMF:Admin:Mail:Setting page when it asks for server, port, username, password. 
This MTA does not have a username, nor password, etc.

Perhaps I am going down the wrong rabbit hole.  I need the blue pill

[Arantor]

Did you just give it the server and port? (That should work depending on how the MTA is set up)

[mfabache]

You mean, did I give SMF the server and port?

No.

I'm not sure what server (localhost?), and port (?) to use for postfix.  What about a username/password.

Obviously, this is my first time configuring an MTA and I'll likely miss some things.  Open to another route or continuing with this.

[Arantor]

Honestly I'd suggest not running your own MTA and outsourcing it to something like Mailgun where you can just get SMTP details and put them in.

If you did try it, you'd likely want localhost on port 25 assuming your host has opened the port.

[mfabache]

Hoo-ray!!

Arantor, give yourself a pat on the back for me.  You put me in the right direction.

I searched on Mailgun and decided to go with sendinblue.com
By the time they got back to me (on activation), I was able to configure my OWN MTA, locally.

However, I will be going with the 3rd party as I do not have to worry about all the nefarious attempts on my SMTP server which is now turned off.

Thanks for the help!

Excellent!