Author Topic: SMTP sending too fast? (Read 3913 times)

rjdunncm · « **on:** March 31, 2005, 01:08:59 pm »

First, let me say that I love ListMail. Also, I have upgraded
and had no problems with the upgrade. Everything is
working fine. It might have been nice, though, if we hadn't
lost the !confirm from the global mesage codes. :lol:
Fortunately, I read in here to just add it before I had a mile
long list of unconfirmed people.

Anyway, my question is regards to sending speed. I'm using
SMTP. I have heard that if you send too many emails too
fast that it will cause a problem with there deliverability.
Especially with domains like AOL, Hotmail, & msn. In other
words, you will recieve a bunch of bogus bounce notices
for "undeliverable" mail. Not quota, user unknown etc.

My current setting is "localhost' port "25 reconnect every "2500"
Is that sending too fast? It takes just a couple of seconds on my
screen to send to my current list of 330. Perhaps what I'm
thinking about only relates to using Sendmail.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ronald Dunn

DW · « **Reply #1 on:** March 31, 2005, 05:46:46 pm »

Hi Ronald,

ListMail will send at the same speed (as fast as possible) no matter how often you reconnect. There is not a delay when reconnecting. There is currently no way to slow down SMTP sending.

I don't suspect you will run into too many problems with your very modest list size. While I do not know for sure, I think problems arise when you send much more email, upwards of 500-1000, or even more, messages per hour to AOL/HotMail, etc.

Regards

ryan_christopherson · « **Reply #2 on:** April 05, 2005, 09:07:25 pm »

I ran into a similar problem where my web host had something on the server that killed the send process if it detected a large mass of email coming at the mail server. To fix the issue, I implemented the host's recommendation:

In the configuration menu, I changed "Mail Sending Method" to "Internal sendmail PHP Mail" and put the settings on 500 (ms) between emails and 5 (mins) every 250 emails. This chunks my emails (about 8000 subscribers) into groupings that fall just below the threshold where the server kills my mailing. It takes longer to send to the list, but I haven't experienced any additional problems. (just set it and fa-get it!) I have been on an old version and just upgraded today, so maybe it's not an issue an longer.

Good luck,
R

DW · « **Reply #3 on:** April 06, 2005, 12:49:25 pm »

I see now that I should put in delay code for SMTP. The only way to get around HotMail/AOL throttling, which can also be triggered by other users on a shared server, is with a multiple IP sending patch.

http://www.simscripts.com/qmail_multiple_interfaces_patch.html
http://www.simscripts.com/exim_multiple_interfaces_patch.html

mike2 · « **Reply #4 on:** April 12, 2005, 08:20:58 am »

I've been wondering about this patch for qmail for a while now. I use sendmail and have been looking for something like this with no luck.

Dean, do you know how often it switched the IP? Is it static or configurable?

I am considering switching to qmail and getting this patch.

DW · « **Reply #5 on:** April 12, 2005, 08:39:39 am »

I have replied here.

lynda.kane · « **Reply #6 on:** April 15, 2005, 12:28:38 am »

Not sure if this is the same issue, but when sending to my main list (400+), listmail sends approx 30-40 emails, then the page says 'done' and I have to hit 'resume' to start the mailing again. So for sending my list I have to manually hit resume about 10 or 12 times! Also doesn't show the "sending" N of N data gynamically, i.e. I just see the number of emails left to send when I hit resume and the page starts loading again.

Is this a server or listmail settings problem? What to do?

Thanks,

Lynda

toma · « **Reply #7 on:** April 15, 2005, 08:19:59 am »

Lynda, I have the same problem. I suspect you use sendmail as a mail server.
Tom

DW · « **Reply #8 on:** April 15, 2005, 10:07:32 am »

There are known counter problems with FireFox.

Some servers buffer web page output so you will only see the final result of a page once it's finished completely "loading". (this can be a while when mailing).

Are you using SMTP?

Most servers do not stop scripts from running without a warning such as "max time limit exceeded".

It would be very useful to look at the server logs. I guess neither of you have administrator access to your servers, do you?...

Regards

toma · « **Reply #9 on:** April 15, 2005, 10:38:59 am »

I'm wondering if a good solution might be to host my mailing on one of your servers. I could probably install a non-sendmail email server software to resolve the issue here, but for now I prefer sendmail.

What would be the cost to host a subdomain for mailing purposes--something like lists.crimescene.com. I'd keep my site on my current server as well as my database but would use hosting for its dependable smtp ablity over my own.

If available, let me know the cost and process.

Thanks
Tom

DW · « **Reply #10 on:** April 15, 2005, 04:00:18 pm »

Lynda,

It is very hard to say what is happening. Please submit a tech support request of the type other at http://listmailpro.com/support with some notes about what you are experiencing and I'll check it out when I have some time.

Tom,

Unfortunately, due to the fact that I can't reliably deliver email everywhere (though, who can in a shared environment?), I am no longer offering hosting services to the public. I highly recommend DreamHost as they are fully supportive (though a bit tricky to set up on, see the Online Help). cPanel servers (with no limits on email) are also known to fully support ListMail - you might try findmyhost.com to find one of these. A complete list of requirements is available here.

Regards

leanne · « **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2005, 04:09:38 am »

Quote from: "DW"

I see now that I should put in delay code for SMTP. The only way to get around HotMail/AOL throttling, which can also be triggered by other users on a shared server, is with a multiple IP sending patch.

http://www.simscripts.com/qmail_multiple_interfaces_patch.html
http://www.simscripts.com/exim_multiple_interfaces_patch.html

Hi Dean -- My new host, voxtreme, only allows 500 mails per hour. I am not sure if my setup is with SMTP, but I think it is not... I need to know if there is a way to code things to slow down the mailings? I've looked thru the scripts and cannot determine if there is a way to do that. I'm kind of at a standstill, as my list is about 1350 now, and I cannot send a total list mailing.

Thanks!
Leanne

DW · « **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2005, 10:36:09 am »

SMTP throttling is not currently available but is in consideration for a future update.

As per my recommendation at http://listmailpro.com/help/requirements.html it is best to run ListMail on a host with no limits on outgoing email. DreamHost will let you run several thousand (I recommend up to 20,000) emails every day.

Sorry I can't be of more help right now. You might be able to find some "throttling" code for SMTP in the forum here as I believe one client did it themself.

Regards

bookup · « **Reply #13 on:** July 19, 2005, 03:00:00 pm »

Quote from: "DW"

Hi Ronald,

ListMail will send at the same speed (as fast as possible) no matter how often you reconnect. There is not a delay when reconnecting. There is currently no way to slow down SMTP sending.

I don't suspect you will run into too many problems with your very modest list size. While I do not know for sure, I think problems arise when you send much more email, upwards of 500-1000, or even more, messages per hour to AOL/HotMail, etc.

I have 20,000+ in my list and I surely have more than 1,000 each of AOL and Hotmail addresses. Should I adjust my sending method?

Currently I don't get many complaints about missing broadcast emails but that's because they are not on any schedule, maybe once or twice a month, and customers would never know if they missed one.

Complaints about missing "welcome" messages are a different story.

Mike

BGSWebDesign · « **Reply #14 on:** July 20, 2005, 11:55:34 am »

Hi All,

A few thoughts...

Quote

I have been on an old version and just upgraded today

Curious as to how that went Ryan? I have yet to upgrade, but have everythig in place.... is the sending function working exactly the same?

DW - have you implemented a background sender yet, and if not when do you plan on having one in place? I really need it as my lists are broken up into 10K lists, I have about 20-30 of them, so I'll need to schedule sending to 10-15 at a time and let the background sender KICK-STart the mailing when the queue dies - another feature that would be useful is one that deletes bad Email addresses - about every few weeks I get someone that entered goofy chars (this was one today "..." in the email address), this hangs the sender and I have to manually go in and delete it from lm_users and lm_sendq table, it would be nice if sender recognized bad Email addresses and deleted them 'on the fly'!

Regarding Throttling, DW you gave me the code for it, throttling also affects how users are able to remove themselves from my list, I have implemented it and it works fine, you can see the thread at:
http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=32.0

HTH,