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sf_adam
USA
2 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2009 : 02:55:31
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I am trying to decide whether to use Outlook/ my ISP or the internal SMTP server in MLK.
According to your documentation, the decision boils down to
- Your ISPs commercial email policy (in my case they limit
you to 100 recipients per email)
- Whether you are connected to the internet all of the time (which
I am)
- Your comfort with technology
My concerns surround the following:
How much more 'work' is the internal SMTP server. Are there minimum hardware requirements, ISP restrictions (I use SBC DSL) or specific OS requirements? What are the potential problems and maintenance issues?
From what I understand, an SMTP server allows me to send emails. I will not use it to receive emails. I can continue to receive emails using outlook. How does this conflict with my ISP who has the MX record for my domain? Are there any potential issues when sending emails from an SMTP server which is not the 'official' mail server?
I am also concerned about getting my domain onto a blacklist - and having my normal business email get blocked. What are some recommendations for avoiding this? Should I use my primary Domain, or should I use another one which I own? Are there any issues about domain usage or blacklist avoidance you can make me aware of?
I am also confused about mailing list member duplication. I currently try to have no duplicate email addresses. Again according to documentation, it seems MLK allows duplicates or can prevent them. When do you recommend allowing duplicates? Should I continue my vigilence to prevent them, or is there a good reason to allow them. How does MLK act if you turn off dups and try to add or import them (warnings, special screens/ tools)? Are there tools to check for and dedup records (especially mailing addresses and company names)? What are some best practices for managing duplicate records.
I also use a secondary email address for my members. Can this custom field be used like the primary email address field? Or do I need to have a duplicate mail and name record for both addresses?
Finally, web forms. How do members update their existing records? Change their mailing or email address. Remove themselved from some groups and add themselves to others? I saw in the documentation the use of subscribe and unsubscribe as recognized Actions.
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xequte
7504 Posts |
Posted - Mar 01 2009 : 02:55:31
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> How much more 'work' is the internal SMTP server. Are there minimum hardware requirements, ISP restrictions
> (I use SBC DSL) or specific OS requirements? What are the potential problems and maintenance issues?
The Internal Server is one of those things that usually "just works" but on some systems requires a bit of tinkering. The main issue that can occur is that on some systems a firewall or proxy server will block the server from accessing the Internet (in which case you need to configure the offending application to unblock MLK's access).
As long as you do not try to have too many simultaneous threads then it will run fine on almost any PC (ideally with a broadband connection).
Also some mail servers balk at traffic from local servers so it helps to use the option to automatically resend your messages, ideally with the last send attempt going via normal SMTP.
> From what I understand, an SMTP server allows me to send emails. I will not use it to receive emails.
> I can continue to receive emails using outlook. How does this conflict with my ISP who has the
> MX record for my domain? Are there any potential issues when sending emails from an SMTP
> server which is not the 'official' mail server?
Outgoing (SMTP) traffic in no way affects your incoming (POP) mail traffic.
> I am also concerned about getting my domain onto a blacklist - and having my normal business email
> get blocked. What are some recommendations for avoiding this? Should I use my primary Domain,
> or should I use another one which I own? Are there any issues about domain usage or blacklist
> avoidance you can make me aware of?
Make sure your lists are clean, i.e. that the people on them subscribed to receive e-mail from you. Make sure your e-mail contains valid contact details, subscribe information and that you unsubscribe anyone who asks and remove addresses that bounce too often (all functions of MLK).
You will still receive the odd spam report if your list of a decent size (some users just find it easier to click the "This is Spam" ISP report button than to unsubscribe. So when this happens just respond to the report detailing how and when the user was subscribed (using the Information available in MLK).
> I am also confused about mailing list member duplication. I currently try to have no
> duplicate email addresses. Again according to documentation, it seems MLK allows duplicates
> or can prevent them. When do you recommend allowing duplicates? Should I continue my
> vigilence to prevent them, or is there a good reason to allow them. How does MLK
> act if you turn off dups and try to add or import them (warnings, special screens/ tools)?
MLK blocks all duplicate addresses!
However a user can belong to multiple groups (if you have allowed that under under View>Options, Groups).
For example, we have groups for each of products, our beta program, etc. Sometimes we only want to e-mail our beta testers, but for our monthly mailer we e-mail the entire list.
Even if a user belongs to multiple groups they still only receive one copy of the message when you send to the entire list.
> I also use a secondary email address for my members. Can this custom field be used like
> the primary email address field? Or do I need to have a duplicate mail and name record for
> both addresses?
Presently a second e-mail address field cannot be used for a mailer, but only becuase no one has ever requested it. Tell me more about why you want to do this and I will look at adding it to a future version.
> Finally, web forms. How do members update their existing records? Change their mailing or
> email address. Remove themselved from some groups and add themselves to others? I
> saw in the documentation the use of subscribe and unsubscribe as recognized Actions.
Modify support is on the to-do list. At present you can modify address and other details by performing another subscribe for the same e-mail address. And you can modify an e-mail address by sending a message with the subject:
MODIFY old@address.com new@address.com
Nigel
Xequte Software
nigel@xequte.com
www.xequte.com |
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Best Practices & Setup - SMTP, Dups, Web Forms
