On my site I have quite a few users built up over time, when I send out a newsletter it times out, this happens after only half the users are mailed so the rest are un-able to hear about up-dates or get the newsletters they have signed up for as part of our system.

Is there some sort of limit and can this be extended as my site continues to grow. Also I'm told that my site rejects certain mails and this is a domian provider problem

Could you describe the problem with more details?
Thank you.

I run a nuke site with over 1400 members, we send out news updates to the members regarding info about Dances and events.

After 500 members it times out. Is there some sort of time limit on e-mails? I would presume this is incase of spam.

I can't explain anymore than that.

How many emails are sent per day?

Per day I'm not sure how many are sent through the system. Just generally topic replys and stuff. The newsletter is only done maybe once a week twice tops for special announcements.

Perhaps 100 a day I would say and on a day when an announcements sent around 1500

Why would this be a problem?

If you are trying to send 1500 emails all at once, that is why it times out...

Try sending them in batches of 250 or so... maybe even 500, but 1500 is too many...


Also as far as you being told that the site rejects certain emails and its hostony's issue, I think that is false... Hostony doesnt do any proactive blocking of email what-so-ever uneless you have enabled spamassassin, and that will only block and/or delete them. You may want to get some more information from whomever told you that and post it here. I bet they had an issue on their side... If they are having problems "receiving" email from your site, then its possible that the spam software protection on THEIR servers side is rejecting it. This could be for any number of reasons... most likely that someone from the same server as yours, sent an email to someone and that someone reported it as spam to one of the RBL's out there... Some RBL's (Realtime Black Lists) just add emails w/o doing any research or any kind of weighting system. So anyone can cause any domain to be blacklisted for a short time, long enough that it would cause a problem with a few users...

Hope that helps

Jason

I can't send the newsletter in batches, its all users or none. It would be great if I could but the users are tied into the nuke database I don't see the e-mail addresses and everyone is mailed at once with the newsletter.

All AOL addresses are now bouncing so I presume what you have said rings true for AOL.

Have a look at this


Return-path: <admin@caltonradio.com>
Received: from nobody by server22.fastbighost.com with local (Exim 4.34)
id 1CGkzp-0006j2-4d

SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection:
host mailin-01.mx.aol.com [205.188.156.185]: 554-(RLY:B1) The information presently available to AOL indicates this
554-server is generating high volumes of member complaints from AOL's
554-member base. Based on AOL's Unsolicited Bulk E-mail policy at
554-http://www.aol.com/info/bulkemail.html AOL may not accept further
554-e-mail transactions from this server or domain. For more information,
554 please visit http://postmaster.info.aol.com.


How do I edit this so that it comes from me rather than nobody by server22 I have no idea how to sort this but its fast becoming a nightmare as more and more providers block us as spam even though our users signed up to the newsletter.

Maybe AOL is blocking your e-mails.
Also you can include support@hostony.com at the end of your recipients list and we will look will we get your e-mails or not.

Everyone else is getting my mails apart from AOL users.

Or after so long sending the newsletter it just stops sending them and I get the 404 error page as if its been timed out.

Aside from the AOL issue (yes that is AOL's Fault) .... Why cant you just export the email database, and use an external mass mailing script to run them in batches?

Bulk Mailer X (BMX): e-Newsletter Management does this... http://www.webx.net/bmx/

Just a thought...

Jason

I had a similar problem.

Though I once did a bulk email to annonce my forum upgrade to all registered members, 80 of them, only like 4 didn't make it and the 4 members registered like a year ago.

So I can see the point here.

Well this is what AOHELL said...

Dear andy221,

Thank you for contacting the AOL Postmaster Helpdesk.

To further assist you, please have your mail server administrator contact us by calling 1-888-212-5537 with the following information:

1. The connecting IP Address and its Reverse DNS.

The connecting IP is the IP address of the server that makes a connection to AOL's network. This may be a mail server or a firewall.

You may check and learn about IP addresses and how to identify the IP address of your connecting host on the AOL Postmaster website at: <http://postmaster.aol.com/info/ipexpl.html>

2. The complete error message that you are receiving. Please include the error code. For example "554 (RLY:B2)."

3. Point of contact information referring to this issue. Include Name, phone number, email address, and name of the company.

This information is needed to help initiate resolution to your e-mail delivery issue. If you have any further questions or concerns, please visit our website at http://postmaster.aol.com.

Thank you for your time and patience.

AOL Postmaster

I'm still having a nightmare with this. Can this be solved or do I need to continue with this nightmare

This is really not something that can be solved w/o using your own SMTP server with settings tweaked for MASS mailings...

you are sending out TOO Many emails at once.. you need to break them down into batches of 500 or so, or use a program that will do that for you...

1500 emails in ONE session is too many for any SMTP server to process w/o serious tweaking to allow the session to be held open for a LOOONG time. The SMTP server is timing you out, its a safety measure so that some spammer trying to use your server as an SMTP cant bring the box to its knees with open connections...

Jason

Its nowt to do with that, you are missing the point here completely.

AOL have blocked me as spam, this is nowt to do with the newsletter problem, I'll deal with that after I get the AOL problem solved.

Without me sending a newsletter people are asking for request reply to topic notification. They are not getting them I'am reason being is AOL have reported my mail as spam.

I would open a trouble ticket with the instructions you posted.

Just remember, the forums are not for technical support, open a trouble ticket if you expect hostony to work on the problem. I know they try to help when a message is posted here, and most often just do it that way, but if you want an "official" response, open the ticket...

Jason

The reason I post them here is some things are easily solved and quicker by forum. Sometimes its just ignorance on the part of the users who need something cleared up quickly.

I'll open a ticket in a few days if it continues. Seems to have eased off since I got my members to complain about not receiving e-mails.

Let's put it this way:

AOL ######S.