DiscJockey

hi.. i just got a new script

basically it retrieves all the contacts from a specific hotmail email and then it emails them all.

the problem is; if there is 112 contacts then it will try to send 112 emails, this is going to slow the server down right??

does surpass allow this script??

if no.. what other alternative is there?

aarmenaa

I too have often wondered about this. If I use a script that sends out a lot of mail all at once (such as a mailing list I wrote myself), does it create a large load on the server? Also, does the script run longer than 30 seconds (most PHP installations will kill a script that runs longer than 30 seconds)? Perhaps the mail just enters a spool and is sent at a low priority?

Rai

DiscJockey, what it sounds like you're trying to do, isn't appropriate regardless of the type of serverload it has. If you're sending out a mass email to a group of people, they have to have given you permission to send any type of solicitation, and there has to be a way for them to unsubscribe to the email list. But if you're taking an email that you were given legitimately, and scanning all of that emails contacts and emailing them - and they have no control whether or not they recieve email from you - then that's a big no.

Alternatively if you're talking about sending just to your own contact list on hotmail... well, I don't know how to address that.

Basically the bottom line, if you're sending out unsolicitated mail that cannot be subscribed to and unsubscribed from, then you'll likely get your server blacklisted and Surpass can suspend your account. If I misunderstood what you're using this script for, I'm sorry, perhaps you can explain better the purpose of a script like this so someone can offer an alternative if need be.

As for the type of server load a mail script creates, I'm not entirely sure. I know on website I run, if I mail out to the registered users, it will send emails out in incriments, only so many at a time. That leads me to believe that if you're sending 112 emails at once, it may give the server indegestion. But it also depends on what else is going on at the server.

DiscJockey

it aint no mailing list.. its just an invitation

David

but they can still regard it as spam and target you as a spammer

David

My websites give the server diareah.

DiscJockey

doubt it. If a friend of yours recommends you to a website, it's spam??

David

You want to mass send it to a ton of people in your address book right? I don't have anywhere near 40 people in my Yahoo! one that I've used for 6 years, and have no clue who some of those people are. Unless you talk to those people regularly and they remember you, then they may say it's spam.

Also, why do you need a script to do this? Why don't you just use hotmail since that's where they are stored anyway? It seems like some kind of massive work around for nothing. Like you're working around an already viable and much easier solution.

Rai

You could send out an invitation to your own friends list, and it probably wouldn't be recorded as spam. But it sounds like you're going to be scanning your friend's contact lists and sending out invitations to them, where they may or may not know you, and so could record it as spam. The only way to be sure that they think it's from a friend then would be to spoof the original email you scanned, which is a huge no-no.

I'm not trying to sound accusing here becausse I don't think you're planning on doing anything bad, but this is just how it looks from an outside point of view. I know that by making this post, you care about how your actions will affect your server, so I don't think you'll do something that could blacklist it.

If you don't get a clear answer on how this will affect the server load from someone else, you should email support and show them the script you're planning on using (a link to the site, official description, something like that) because they'll be able to tell better then anyone how it's going to work.