mail function running slow

[gymshoes]

I'm using phpnuke's newsletter system to send out trade alert emails to our clients, these are time sensitive and it's taking like 15 plus minutes to send to about 500 total users. The email goes to the subscribers, then to a list of trial users. Here is the function.

Here's the code:

function newsletter_send($title, $content) {
    global $user_prefix, $sitename, $dbi, $nukeurl, $adminmail;
    $from = $adminmail;
    $subject = "[$sitename Newsletter]: ".stripslashes($title)."";
    $content = stripslashes($content);
    $content = "$sitename "._NEWSLETTER."\n\n\n$content\n\n- $sitename "._STAFF."\n\n\n\n\n\n"._NLUNSUBSCRIBE."";
    $result = sql_query("select user_email from ".$user_prefix."_users where newsletter='1'", $dbi);
	$result2 = sql_query("select user_email2 from ".$user_prefix."_users where newsletter='1'", $dbi);
    while(list($user_email) = sql_fetch_row($result, $dbi)) {
	mail($user_email, $subject, $content, "From: $from\nX-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion());
	while(list($user_email2) = sql_fetch_row($result2, $dbi)) 
	mail($user_email2, $subject, $content, "From: $from\nX-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion());
	}
///////
$conn = mysql_connect ("localhost", "username", "password");
mysql_select_db ("fxtradercommunity_userList", $conn);

$timeStamp = time ();
$expire = $timeStamp-'1209600';			
$emails = mysql_query("SELECT visitormail FROM trialUsers WHERE signupDate >= '$expire'");
   while ($sendemail = mysql_fetch_array($emails)){
   $email = $sendemail["visitormail"];
   mail($email, $subject, $content, "From: $from\nX-Mailer: PHP/");
}
///////	

I added the last command to pull from a separate database of free trial users. However, we were still having time prblems before I added this.

[Gasolene]

everytime you call the mail() function , you are re-connection to the mail server.
you are basically sending 500 individual emails with 500 seperate connections to the server.

there are some smtp mail classes for php (phpmailer is a good one), or you could add multiple addresses to the header.

i have a class the breaks the recipients down to groups of 200 and sends an email to 200 people at a time.
so 2000 emails would require 11 connections and 11 emails would be sent.

[drew010]

I'd say there is a bit of a problem somewhere either with the server or the code. My server can send about 1000 individual messages in about a minute and a half.
But the pear mail class is worth looking at http://pear.php.net/package/Mail