25 port for old accounts

Heya,

I would recommend you to use port 465 or 587 with authentication rather than port 25. Other than that, you can try and contact DigitalOcean’s support and ask them to lift the ban for port 25 for you.

You can reach them at

https://www.digitalocean.com/support/

That said, running your own mail server on a Droplet is generally more trouble than it is worth. Deliverability is hard to maintain, IP reputation takes time to build, and you are one spam complaint away from being blacklisted. Most people are better off using a dedicated SMTP service like https://smtpfa.st/, SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark and skipping the port unblock request entirely.

Hope that helps! - KFSys.

Hi there 👋,

In addition to what has already been mentioned, can you confirm what are some of the technical reasons on why you need port 25 compared to 465 or 587?

Usually, even though your account was created before the SMTP block policy change, I’d still recommend using ports 465 (for SMTPS) or 587 (for SMTP with STARTTLS) for sending mail. These ports are more secure and supported for encrypted email transmission.

Running your own mail server on port 25 is generally not recommended due to security and deliverability issues.

- Bobby

Heya,

Using ports 465 (for SMTPS) and 587 (for SMTP with STARTTLS) is indeed a better approach in most cases. These ports offer encrypted transmission by default and are widely accepted by most email providers for outgoing mail, avoiding the common restrictions on port 25. They’re also more secure since they require authentication and support modern encryption protocols, which reduces the risk of interception or abuse.

Also many email providers block or heavily filter email from port 25, especially when it comes from non-verified or smaller domains. Even if DigitalOcean lifts the restriction on port 25 for you, your emails might still face deliverability challenges, with some providers outright rejecting or flagging emails coming from port 25 due to spam prevention measures.

Using 465 or 587 is much more reliable for deliverability. These ports align with established best practices for outgoing email, ensuring compatibility with most email providers and significantly improving the chances of your messages reaching inboxes rather than spam folders.

Hope that this helps!