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View Full Version : Workaround for 500 mails/hour limit? (not spam)


christiansongwriters.org
09-07-2006, 06:34 PM
Hi,

I run a popular, growing phpBB forum with over 1400 members...probably most have chosen to be notified when they receive a PM, and members also frequently subscribe to topics in which they post. My old host's biggest plan had no restriction on emails sent per hour, but an 80GB monthly bandwidth limit that was too low. So I thought I had found just the right ticket with BlueHost.

But...I tried to send a mass email from my forum letting our users know we were back up and running after moving hosts. Then after getting a ton of system failure messages I realized that notice went out to only the first 50 users. I called BlueHost tech support and had my domain's limit raised to 500 messages per hour, but even that isn't high enough for me to send a notice to all my members. I checked the settings available to me in the custom phpBB mod I use to send out emails...it has the ability to break mailings into chunks (like 100 members at a time), but no ability to stagger them in time.

I certainly understand the desire to prevent spamming (I hate spam)...but I do feel somewhat slighted here. BlueHost's advertising touts 2500 email accounts, so I wouldn't have dreamed that if all 2500 accounts were used, that in a given hour only 20% of users could send out one message each.

But now that I've got the whining out of the way :rolleyes: , can anyone suggest a workaround? I have another domain hosted elsewhere that doesn't have such a limit, and I suppose I could have notices sent from that one, but I'd rather our members get notification emails from ...@christiansongwriters.org than from somewhere else.

Oh, another nasty thing that happens when the limit is reached...when someone posts in a topic in which anyone has subscribed, they get an error message like:

Ran into problems sending Mail. Response: 550 message to verify they are valid.

Quote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
DEBUG MODE

Line : 168
File : smtp.php

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Any reasonable suggestions/workarounds would be greatly appreciated!

James

guachiman
09-08-2006, 12:56 PM
Hi James

I had the same problem with two of my sites with BH, and both times were solved with a 5 min. phone call to cust. serv. or an email. They can increase your quota from their end. I requested a 1000 em/hour because I never need more (for now), now both work great!

redsox9
09-08-2006, 03:17 PM
Hi, James:

With phpBB, is it possible to stagger the emails that you send? I'm not familiar with the software but I know that suggestion has popped up here and there. Otherwise, what guachiman suggests is probably the best (and easiest) answer to your question.

I do agree with BlueHost's policy to limit the number of emails sent per hour to discourage spamming but - wow! - it's amazing how many people have run into this issue.

christiansongwriters.org
09-08-2006, 09:19 PM
Thanks for the suggestions, but the BlueHost tech I talked with last night said 500/hr was the max they could go for me, and phpBB won't stagger -- the mod I have installed will only chunk (without an option to separate the chunks in time). But rather than fighting with BH I decided to pay for a mail list provider, and went with ymlp.com

Other than this one issue, I'm very pleased with BlueHost so far. IMHO, I don't believe BH should advertise 2500 email accounts per domain, since that would never work out with such a low email limation.

Regards,
James

Frusis
09-09-2006, 06:13 AM
I don't believe BH should advertise 2500 email accounts per domain, since that would never work out with such a low email limation.

Here, here.

meeciteewurkor
09-09-2006, 12:27 PM
Can you use the SMTP mail server option in phpBB's configuration page, instead of using the board's mailer? (just thinking out loud) :)
seems that would bypass the 500/hr limit?