Mass Email From dedicated IP and Server

Question

We have a dedicated server and we are sending emails from a dedicated IP. We are using PHP mailer Script and Exim to send out emails. The problem I am facing is we are sending very low volume emails eg. only 25 k emails but When we check emails in queue, its says 85k emails. We are running cron to fetch and send emails.

The sending speed is very low. It took whole day to send 24k emails and server timed out many a times in Between( ALso smtp 421 error). I am confused if I am only sending 24k emails how come 85 k emails get in queue and why it is taking so much time. I also Talked to support guys but I did not get any satisfactory answer. This issue is related to the script, cron or settings related to server?

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks, Anand

Answer 1

If your mails are 25k, but going to multiple recipients at different domains, they will need to be sent separately to each domain, so if you have at least four recipient mail servers for the message, you can easily have a queue of 85k. 4 * 25k > 85k

An SMTP response beginning with 4 (e.g. 421) means the message could not be sent immediately, so try again later. This could just mean there was a temporary problem with the recipient server, or there may be some other reason. You will need to contact the recipient about that one.

As for the speed, based on the volume of messages you are sending, you probably look very much like a spammer. When you are suspected of sending spam, a recipient mail server (or your ISP) can quite reasonably throttle or refuse your connection, causing mails to take longer to send. This is probably why you are getting a backlog.

If you aren't a spammer, hang in there. Eventually, other mail servers will learn to trust you. A new mail server is always going to look suspicious, especially if it is sending a large number of small emails. You will eventually build up a good reputation if you continuously send legitimate emails.

On the other hand, if you are a spammer, give up now, you're not going to win.

If you need to send out lots of messages and cannot afford to wait to build up your reputation, perhaps consider either sending via your ISP's mail server (fair use limits may apply), or using a bulk-mail service such as Mailchimp, or one of its competitors.