Starlight™ Mail Bridge is an add-on service for Starlight™ Virtual Machines that allows you to run your own mail server for your VM via direct 25-port access without risks of spam and blacklisting, or a degraded reputation for your VM's IP.
Once you order the service, you need to proceed with the PTR configuration in the Starlight Manager menu, configure your preferred mail server, and set the required DNS records for a domain on your DNS provider’s side.
To order Mail Bridge, please follow the steps below:
Enter the Starlight Manager menu, locate the Mail Bridge Tab.
Press the Add Mail Bridge button and proceed with checkout (trial is available).
After the service is purchased, go to the Mail Bridge menu in the split panel to start the configuration.
To configure Mail Bridge, please follow these steps:
Enter a hostname for your mail server in the ‘mail.example.com’ format. Ensure to update the ‘example.com’ part with your actual domain name.
Note: Avoid using the bare domain (example.com) if you have a website/application on it, so as not to break the website/application.
Note: It is not possible to change a PTR once it has been set. Contact support if you have made a typo or want to change the hostname.
After this, the system will automatically:
Set a PTR (reverse DNS) record for the specified domain so your Virtual Machine’s IP resolves to this hostname.
Open the SMTP port 25.
Please note that these changes may take up to 5 minutes to be performed.
When the Mail Bridge configuration is done from Starlight Manager, it’s time to set up the domain’s DNS zone on your DNS provider’s side to finish the connection process.
Note: If your domain uses Spaceship DNS, please check how to create and manage DNS records in your Spaceship account here.
Open the DNS zone for the domain that the mail server was configured for before in Starlight Manager. Create the matching A record (forward-confirmed rDNS) for that hostname, pointing back to the same Virtual Machine IP:
Name/Host: `mail` (or the hostname you provided)
Type: A
Value: your VM IP (for example, `1.2.3.4`)
Once the record is created, please allow it some time to propagate.
The next step is to publish an SPF record for the domain from which you will send emails using Mail Bridge. The SPF record should be created inside the domain’s DNS zone as a TXT record.
Note: If an SPF record already exists, update it instead of creating a second one.
For example:
Name/Host: example.com
Type: TXT
Value: v=spf1 ip4:1.2.3.4 ~all (where `1.2.3.4` is your VM IP address)
Once the record is created, please allow it some time to propagate.
After the DNS setup is finished, you need to configure your mail server software on the VM by installing and configuring a preferred MTA (for example, Postfix or Exim).
For this, use the hostname you set in the PTR/A record as the mail server hostname.
Once everything is set up and configured, try sending test emails to external mail providers. Check the headers of sent messages to confirm that:
rDNS and A record match your mail hostname.
SPF passes for the domain you used in the ‘From’ address.