Thread

i was wondering if any of my ci brethren have used spry web hosting? i’m looking for a new host and i’m thinking vps is the way to go as i’m tired of spammers on other accounts getting shared servers blacklisted ... plus i like tweaking my environment as needed.

anyone used them or have any opinions?

http://www.spry.com

I have an account with VPSLink which is also Spry.  They are pretty dang nice.  Good prices, nice setup.  For some reason my account there seems zippier than my Slicehost accounts.  No complaints.

However, you might just be trading one email problem for another.  Getting through to the big email providers is a pain in the ass no matter how you slice it.  Shared servers might get blacklisted but at least a big provider has a little more clout when dealing with the email providers.  I have all VPS accounts and I ended up configuring Postfix to relay all my email through an SMTP account with DNSMadeEasy.

so you’re using this service SMTP Service (SMTP Authentication Service) - found on this page? http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/pages/mail.html

how does this increase deliverability?

Sending email from a VPS is hard.  I have never had a VPS be able to deliver email to all major services right out of the box.  Even after finally getting through to all services there are times when Hotmail would drop my email for no apparent reason.

The SMTP services focus specifically on email getting through for their customers.  You are still sharing your email servers with other people but I haven’t had a problem with them.  Because this service is specific to email, they have a strict policy on spam.

Maybe your experience is different from mine, but I got sick of dealing with the headaches of sending email from my VPS.

thanks John for the heads up ... did you publish your SPF records and did you use a control panel of any kind? so even Spry the parent company ... which offers support, can prove to be a pain to get mail delivered?

i don’t have a vps yet. i’m trying to figure what’s the best way for me to move forward. i currently have 2 accounts, a dedicated box for my ic adviser project (softlayer and paying top dollar) and a reseller account with the uber-horrible eleven2.

i’d like to consolidate as the ic adviser project looks like it’s a non-starter ... but i fell in love with owning the box. i’m paying way to much as it’s not getting used near it’s potential of where i saw the company heading, so a vps sounds good to me at the moment.

i was thinking of slicehost too ... as i’m thinking i can install LXAdmin to assist seeing there is no cpanel. i can hack around linux a bit, but i still could use a control panel.

however, all that said ... i’m getting busy these days and i’m not so sure becoming a lamp admin is the best use of my time. i mean, i’ll get there someday (i always try to understand as much of the total picture as possible) but in the meantime while i’m not a linux lamp guru ... my clients need their mail delivered and i don’t feel like spending time i don’t have on issues like that.

Yeah, I did pretty much everything.  this blog post is really good for all the things you can do for helping your email get through.  I just hate dealing with it.

My email problems were with pretty much any provider I tried, and most of the problems were with Hotmail.  I could eventually get through by working through all the usual stuff and a bit of time, but it got to be too much of a hassle.

I use Slicehost also.  In fact, I am going to cancel my VPSLink account and consolidate at SliceHost.  I use Webmin for a control panel when I need it.  Their articles are pretty good.  If you follow them then they cover most of the things you would deal with as an admin.

thanks again john ... at $20 i’m thinking i’ll grab an account and experiment a little before i commit and move anything.

You can use Google Apps for your doman with a VPS. Lots of people do.

You can use Google Apps for your doman with a VPS. Lots of people do.

GFYD is great for outsourcing your off-server usage of email but unfortunately there are settings that it requires for outgoing email which CodeIgniter cannot use without custom hacking to the email library.  Even then, I am not sure how much work it would be.

google apps, funny you say that because slicehost support mentioned that to me ... but i want better control and i like to pipe emails into scripts so i’m thinking that’s out with google apps.

i’m leaning towards a support spry account (where vpslink is unsupported).  so a cheapo account with vpslink to test things out for a few months, if i like it i might go for the spry supported plans.

Don’t go too cheap with the VPSLink accounts.  I would start out with a minimum of 256 of RAM or you will have problems doing some very basic things because of the lack of RAM.  The less RAM you have, the better Linux admin skills you need.  The 256 MB RAM accounts are a good starting place.

Use PHPMailer as a plug-in with CI for SMTP with SSL. Works flawlessly, out of the box.

Use PHPMailer as a plug-in with CI for SMTP with SSL. Works flawlessly, out of the box.

Nice, thanks for the info.  That should work great for Gmail.

i must admit, the 256mb did scare me ... i haven’t associated that with computing in a loooog time. i’m sure it’s traffic dependant, but 256 seems like there is little room for anything after the os, so any traffic and csv parsing or image manipulation sounds like eminent disaster.

The host in a box option apparently can take 8 million hits on 100mb.