Yep Lemmy uses SMTP and in my experience most self-hostable platforms do as well. You can see in the Lemmy config documents how it gets set up: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/administration/configuration.html.
Either a local SMTP server (less used) or an external service (more common). The SMTP is configurable but I believe most used option is ssl smtp over port 587.
theyre routing through a standard SMTP service either hosted by their ISP or an external service theyve sighed up for to relay their mail.
i push mine out through AWS SMTP service, for example.
@Asudox my mastodon connects with smtp to a locally running sendmail which then forwards the messages signed with dkim
Is running a SMTP server a pain in the ass? Like hard to maintain?
I self host a lot of services, but I will never self host my email server If any of my self hosted service would have to go down, I will work on it as soon as I can, but it coudl that it’s not that soon. If I would have self hosted my own email server at it would go down, I would have to work on it straight away because usually after 24/48 hours the other email server give up and send back the email (that was directed to me) to the sender, I could not receive airplane ticket for example and a lot of other stuff. What if that would happen when I’m on holiday in the other side of the world??? 🙈
Yes, it is.
I’ve been running my own mail server for decades now (a quite odd hobby, I know) and that’s not to be recommended for anyone who doesn’t have a particular interest in e-mail. SMTP is from the early 1980s with roots in the 1970s and has had layer upon layer bolted on since then. It’s a fantastic mess.
