Bulk emails not getting through on broadband [Archive]

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suebudd

16-12-2003, 10:55

Hi from a newbie - I do admin work for a small music organisation and need to send out regular emails to members and I have 175 members' emails in a "group" in Outlook Express. I'm on NTL broadband through my set top box.

It seems that some people on the list are not receiving the emails. Does anyone have any ideas why? (I called NTL and the guy said "he didn't think there was any ban on bulk emails" which didn't exactly fill me with confidence, but when I asked him to "make sure please" he kept me holding for an age and it was costing me to wait... 2.5 p a minute, apparently... and I gave up after about ten minutes.... anyway... any help appreciated.

paulyoung666

16-12-2003, 11:01

Frank

16-12-2003, 11:05

I would think ntl's SMTP servers would be configured to not to allow 175 e-mail addresses on one e-mail. I wuld certainly configure my e-mail server like that, preceisely to stop spammers.

Not saying you are a spammer, but sending a mail to 175 people using an Outlook list is not really (if I'm picky) a good way to do it.

A better way would be to use a piece of software especially made for this (sends 175 mails), a server side mailing list (such as mailman or majordomo), or a PHP/ASP mailing list manager solution.

suebudd

16-12-2003, 11:07

I'm trying to find out. I suspect

1. NTL does not allow bulk emailing
2. something to do with members with .aol email addresses
3. something to do with members' with yahoo.co.uk addresses.

I've sent a test email to them all, and quite a few (9) have so far returned, but I won't know if they got it, will I, so not very scientific.

I've just emailed the ones with .aol addresses to see if they all got recent mails (or not)

(Thanks... that was a quick reply! )

(This was responding to Paulyoung666)

suebudd

16-12-2003, 11:10

Thanks Keyser.

I'm looking into an ASP solution on the new site we are designing. In the meantime, I still need to get those emails out....

danielf

16-12-2003, 11:10

I don't know about NTL's policy, but it may be that some of the receiving ISPs (aol and yahoo) have blacklisted NTL (or a range of NTL blocks) because of spam being sent out from these addresses.

suebudd

16-12-2003, 11:15

Is there a lot of spamming from NTL emails then? It seems to me more comes from yahoo and hotmail... but this does sound likely.

danielf

16-12-2003, 11:18

Is there a lot of spamming from NTL emails then? It seems to me more comes from yahoo and hotmail... but this does sound likely.

I don't know if there is a lot, but these blacklist blockers do occasionally get things wrong as well. If this is what is happening, the only workaround I can see is to try and send the emails from another (non-NTL address).

Shaun

16-12-2003, 11:20

I don't know about NTL's policy, but it may be that some of the receiving ISPs (aol and yahoo) have blacklisted NTL (or a range of NTL blocks) because of spam being sent out from these addresses.

I could send from my Ntl addy to my Yahoo.co.uk addy and back again fine until I cancelled my Ntl services last week. Many people said that they were having trouble with yahoo.co.uk and Ntl but I never encountered any ;)

suebudd

16-12-2003, 11:25

Were you doing bulk emailing though Dellwear?

Frank

16-12-2003, 11:48

Sue try splitting them up and doing about 50 per mail. So send the same mail to 50 people at a time.

Also, do you get any bounce messages?

suebudd

16-12-2003, 11:59

Thanks, I did think of that... however it may be quicker to just use my Freeserve connection when I need to send bulk emails... (my outlook express is not user-friendly - on a Mac - not easy to transfer a list or part of a list. Would have to enter each address manually.)

Of course... will it go through Freeserve? I think it did used to, actually, and this problem has only occurred since I joined NTL.

And no, I don't get any bounce emails!! (My address list is perfect!) I did remove one that came back as undeliverable... I wondered if that had stopped the "flow"... but am still having the same problem since then.

I'm sure NTL should be able to tell me whether they have a ban on bulk emailing, and if so how many are allowed. That would certainly help. I've emailed their help... but am not holding my breath!

I'm off to get a life now... thanks for all the help.

DrAwesome

16-12-2003, 12:01

an easy option would be to bulk email via hotmail and add your ntl email address to the email for the reply

SMHarman

16-12-2003, 12:22

I don't know about NTL's policy, but it may be that some of the receiving ISPs (aol and yahoo) have blacklisted NTL (or a range of NTL blocks) because of spam being sent out from these addresses.

Could be that AOL or Yahoo block mails with say 50+ people in the to field and 5+ of them as AOL accounts.

Can you send to each of them individually?

And no, I don't get any bounce emails!! (My address list is perfect!) I did remove one that came back as undeliverable... I wondered if that had stopped the "flow"... but am still having the same problem since then.

I see you can...

Thanks, I did think of that... however it may be quicker to just use my Freeserve connection when I need to send bulk emails... (my outlook express is not user-friendly - on a Mac - not easy to transfer a list or part of a list. Would have to enter each address manually.)

If you have the sent mail in your outbox and hit forward, the list of names and mail addresses will move into the body text and you can cut and paste (or whatever the mac terms are) them into a new mail.

However for one e-mail a while it may just be better to use freeserve and have a freeserve mail profile set, you can always set the reply adress to your ntl one so you get the replies.

I'm off to get a life now... thanks for all the help.

:shrug:

Frank

16-12-2003, 12:33

:shrug:LOL. Women mate :spin:

quadplay

16-12-2003, 13:08

I can confirm that there is a limit on the number of emails that can be sent per hour through the ntl SMTP servers from one IP address - 50. However, I think this is 50 individual emails and not one email with over 50 recipients. If this protection has kicked in, you should get an email advising you to visit the AUP website for information.

However, I don't think that this should apply in this case. To be on the safe side though, I'd recommend you email abuse@ntlworld.com - they're the people who can tell you for sure.

suebudd

16-12-2003, 13:09

Ok - went into garden to scrape daughter's football boots... back again. (Life not found yet...)

um.... thanks SM... that is really helpful thought... actually when I press forward I get the name of the group not all the addresses coming up - but I'll think about that one, as I think if someone pressed return on one of the emails and sent it back to me, then I can see them.

Gee thanks I really appreciate all the support. (Sorry about wishing life was elsewhere...in fact I'd prefer to be simply getting on with my work but this sort of thing always takes up so much time...)

suebudd

16-12-2003, 13:15

Thanks Jimbo. I've emailed "abuse@" and hope they can help.

suebudd

18-12-2003, 11:07

Just to say thanks to everyone. I think I've resolved my problem now by grouping my email list into groups of 40.

(Does anyone read these posts when they go on to two pages?)

paulyoung666

18-12-2003, 11:21

Just to say thanks to everyone. I think I've resolved my problem now by grouping my email list into groups of 40.

(Does anyone read these posts when they go on to two pages?)

yes we do , glad you are sorted :)

Paul

18-12-2003, 12:11

Just to say thanks to everyone. I think I've resolved my problem now by grouping my email list into groups of 40.

(Does anyone read these posts when they go on to two pages?)You're still on page 1 here. :D

suebudd

30-12-2003, 10:29

Hi again. Well, I thought I was sorted... I eventually got this email back from NTL support. (Got no reply at all from abuse@ )

" Due to the large amount of unsolicited email that people are
experiencing, we testing various methods of control.
for the moment do NOT send more than 50 email in one hour.
we will inform you if this changes
carol"

However, as you said Jimbo, it is not clear whether this applies to one email sent to 50 recipients or 50 different emails. I've divided up my email list (of 180 or so members of our small organisation) into groups of 50, but if I have to only send to one group an hour, I don't think it will be manageable... (I'm just not that well organised! and anyway, why should I be put through all this?!?)

Anyone shed any light on this? I did email them back and ask, but no response yet and I emailed on 21 December.

eddie00001

30-12-2003, 12:25

I'm sure I've read somewhere that Outlook Express can only send a certain amount or e-mails in one go, but I thought this was around the 200 mark.

Shaun

30-12-2003, 14:53

Personally, I'd look for an alternative email supplier, if it comes to it you may have to buy a service.

Apparently KingPhoenix supplies addresses and Domains, it may be worth a PM to him ;)

suebudd

30-12-2003, 18:14

Personally, I'd look for an alternative email supplier, if it comes to it you may have to buy a service.

Apparently KingPhoenix supplies addresses and Domains, it may be worth a PM to him ;)

Thanks...but... I'm not sure what an alternative email supplier would look like. Can you explain a bit more? How would I set up an email list with them? Does it somehow bypass Outlook Express? (I use a Mac, by the way, which sometimes seems to cause problems.)

Is it a system hosted on someone else's server? Doesn't that make it vulnerable if that server has problems? At least at the moment, if NTL goes down, I can use my dial-up Freeserve connection to get emails out and back... (guess I could do the same, now I come to think of it...)

So many questions... so little time!

Shaun

30-12-2003, 18:54

I use Yahoo fo my email, I use it exactly the same way you do, I just use a different pop address in outlook.

Maybe Gaz or one of the others could point you in the right direction.