Usage of own web space/dedicated server to send emails

To send emails with help of your own web space/server the web server must support PHP4/5/7/8 (or newer). The server must be able to send emails or can make connections to an external SMTP server.
You can use this possibility to send a higher amount of emails faster and fix problem with anti virus programs. The higher send rate results of compression data before sending to the internet.

Upload of scripts
If you have selected the type of the transmission over FTP.

Select Connection type, change port only when you web space provider requires this. Enter FTP server, FTP user name and FTP password. The option "Use passive transmission" should be selected for (A)DSL connection or if problems occur while uploading the scripts.

Enter the FTP upload folder or create/select the folder by clicking on the button. It is recommended to create a sub folder. In the sub folder SuperMailer should place the tracking scripts.

At the end you must enter the HTTP request inclusive sub directory, so that SuperMailer must add only the name of the scripts for the request by HTTP. The FTP directory must correspondent to the HTTP request.

Click on "Next" to enter the SMTP server data.

 
If you have decided to use the variant to transmit the scripts per upload script.
See also setting up the upload script

Enter the HTTP request inclusive name of the upload script.

At the end you must enter the HTTP request inclusive sub directory, so that SuperMailer must add only the name of the scripts for the request by HTTP.

 

Click on "Next".
Select the sending variant. To use the PHP mail() function PHP 4.3 or newer must be installed on web server, elsewhere BCC emails will not be send correctly.

 

Only for send variant "use a SMTP server"

Enter the outbox server (SMTP). If the server should send the emails itself then enter localhost. Should another server send the emails then enter the external SMTP server by name or IP address.

Specify the port, the port should be ever 25. The script doesn't support SSL encrypted connections.

The value timeout should be 30 seconds, you don't need to change it.

Use authentification by the SMTP server if the external server requires this, if you use the server localhost this setting is not necessary.

Select the maximal amount of emails or the maximal amount of Kbytes of emails that should be transmit at once to the script and should be send by the script. Please consider the information for the script execution limit. Normal values are 10 emails or 1024 Kbytes.

Click on "Next" to setup the extended SMTP options.
Change these settings are mostly not necessary.

The Option SMTP Helo name should be left blank, the script will use the server name.

Sender email address must be specified only if the server doesn't accept your sender email address or you want returning bounce emails to another email account.

Enable debug mode when HTTP errors e.g. HTTP Error 500 occurs, this can help to find PHP errors.

Change line breaks only when email arrives damaged.

Select the compression variant, you must check you web server which variant is supported.

The compression factor should be left by the maximum compression to let the upload package as low as possible. Use "no compression" if the server doesn't support bzip2 and ZLib compression or an error occurs while sending emails.

Click on "Next" and "Done" to use the settings.

 

Please test email sending with a test email.

 

 

Script execution limit

On the most servers the script execution is limited.  This means the scripts could be executed a certain time and will be terminated. You can recognize script termination if SuperMailer doesn't send the emails with error "Maximum execution time exceeded". The script itself can extend runtime if PHP safe_mode is disabled. To check the safe_mode is disabled and get the script execution limit you can create a little PHP script.

Open notepad (not WordPad!), you can find notepad in the program group accessories.

Copy the following lines to the notepad window. Please ensure that in the first line must be the text <?php.

<?php
echo phpinfo();
?>

Save the file as phpinfo.php, not as phpinfo.php.txt (!).

Upload the script phpinfo.php by using a FTP program to the root directory of your webspace.

In you browser type in http://www.<yourdomain>.<tld>/phpinfo.php.

On the showed page you can look for "safe_mode". The text "on", "off" will say the safe mode is on or off.
You can look for "max_execution_time" to find the maximal script execution time limit.
To find informations about the bzip2 or ZLib support you can look for "BZip2 Support" or "ZLib Support".