How to send emails at a regular interval
Dear experts,
I'm trying to figure out a way to send emails at a regular interval, say every 15 seconds, so spam filters won't mark them as spam. I've got my email addresses in a text file which is loaded into a PHP array. Then, they're just sent to the mail server using the mail function.
My problem is, Apache times out when by the time I get to the third email because I used the sleep function for the delay. I was thinking AJAX and/or JavaScript would be useful, but so far all I've found where countdown scripts to a specific time in the future. Any ideas on how this can be solved/improved?
I'm developing this under a Windows XP system.
Thanks!
I'm trying to figure out a way to send emails at a regular interval, say every 15 seconds, so spam filters won't mark them as spam. I've got my email addresses in a text file which is loaded into a PHP array. Then, they're just sent to the mail server using the mail function.
My problem is, Apache times out when by the time I get to the third email because I used the sleep function for the delay. I was thinking AJAX and/or JavaScript would be useful, but so far all I've found where countdown scripts to a specific time in the future. Any ideas on how this can be solved/improved?
I'm developing this under a Windows XP system.
Thanks!
Agreed with routinet. I developed several mailscripts for companies that have been sending big batches of e-mail and it does work fine. The main criterium for "spam" (other than the standard word-checks) is if the e-mail is actually sent from the server it claims to be sent from. For example: if you use the mailaddress info@yourcompany.com, you should launch the mailscript from the yourcompany.com webserver. Otherwise mail programs will know they have been lied to and that your mail has been sent from mailserver.com. And then they might mark your mail as spam.
But in my experience, being marked as spam doesn't have that much to do with mail intervals. So I wouldn't go through all that trouble writing all those workarounds.
But in my experience, being marked as spam doesn't have that much to do with mail intervals. So I wouldn't go through all that trouble writing all those workarounds.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Setting the max_execution_time may keep Apache from timing out, but that will not address the email being picked up as spam. You'll have to audit your email server and email content to find out why your mail is being flagged.
That is true; but it will keep the script running and that seemed to be the question that he was asking. He wanted to know how to stop apache from timing out.
As far as the spam question goes. I would suggest you try using PHPMailer to send out your emails. I was sending out emails using the simple mail function and it got flagged as spam but when I used PHPMailer and embeded the images and sent a plain text version of the email as well it did not get picked up as spam. Try it out and let me know if that works for you.
As far as the spam question goes. I would suggest you try using PHPMailer to send out your emails. I was sending out emails using the simple mail function and it got flagged as spam but when I used PHPMailer and embeded the images and sent a plain text version of the email as well it did not get picked up as spam. Try it out and let me know if that works for you.
No worries, RWJDCom. I just wanted to make sure he understood what your suggestion affected.
I also use a third-party mailer, Richard Heyes' email class...LUV IT!
/*************************
** Title.........: HTML Mime Mail class
** Version.......: 2.0.1
** Author........: Richard Heyes <richard@phpguru.org>
** Filename......: class.html.mime.mail.class
** Last changed..: 11 October 2001
** License.......: Free to use. If you find it useful
** though, feel free to buy me something
** from my wishlist :)
** http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/wishlist/S8H2UOGMPZK6
**************************
I also use a third-party mailer, Richard Heyes' email class...LUV IT!
/*************************
** Title.........: HTML Mime Mail class
** Version.......: 2.0.1
** Author........: Richard Heyes <richard@phpguru.org>
** Filename......: class.html.mime.mail.class
** Last changed..: 11 October 2001
** License.......: Free to use. If you find it useful
** though, feel free to buy me something
** from my wishlist :)
** http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/wishlist/S8H2UOGMPZK6
**************************
ASKER
Thanks! I'll work on the spam issue next, but at least I got the timeout issue out of the way. Sorry for the confusion.
I'm certainly no expert on email, but I don't think they get marked as spam because of when they were sent, and certainly not in comparison to the next message sent. Outside of the originating server, one message has absolutely no relation to the next. I've sent more than 6000 emails in a single batch and never had an issue with them being marked as spam. From my *very* basic knowledge of spam filters, they look at other characteristics like content, address resolution, etc. Perhaps there is something in your content triggering the spam filter?