Taking too long to send mails

zbee

I've recently been asigned a newsletter. It's about 3,000 mails I have to send, but the client's server is too slow. It only allows me to send about 2 mails per minute, and after a while it blocks me and doesn't let me send more mails. So it takes me about 3 days to finish the job. Fortunately I have my own servers with mail() enabled. My question for the experts is this, can I use my server to send these emails on behalf of my client? I wouldn't want to be blocked or the emails reported as spam. Any clues anyone?

ixalmida

This is just my experience, so take it with a grain of salt:

I have several scripts that spoof my company's email server from my web server. I have found that as long as the FROM header and the RETURN-PATH header match the company domain, most spam-blockers will overlook the fact that it's a different IP address. In some rare cases you may need to ask the recipient to unblock your IP, but there is often a self-service link in the rejection notice so you don't even need to contact them.

It has also been my experience working with email admins that "whitelisting" is a very common activity. Just get your headers right so you don't end up on a major "blacklist" (i.e. - Barracuda's blacklist).

BTW - the RETURN-PATH header is the tricky one, and may require you to re-configure your sendmail options.

NogDog

As stated on the PHP [man]mail/man manual page:
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Note:
It is worth noting that the mail() function is not suitable for larger volumes of email in a loop. This function opens and closes an SMTP socket for each email, which is not very efficient. For the sending of large amounts of email, see the » PEAR::Mail, and » PEAR::Mail_Queue packages.
[/indent]

zbee

Thank you both ixalmida and NogDog for your replies. It's exactly what I needed, some guidance so I knew where to start looking. I appreciate it.