Re: Problem sending messages

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From: *Vanguard* (no-email_at_reply-to-newsgroup.invalid)
Date: 05/21/04 

Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 20:04:29 -0500

Suzanne said in news:feed01c43ec6$d12beca0$a301280a@phx.gbl:
> I use a program for my small business that helps me send
> automated e-mails. But when there are more than 10 e-
> mails in my outbox, only the first 10 send. If the
> option for "send messages immediately" is not checked,
> then I get this error message: "Your email message was
> unable to be sent because your mail server rejected the
> sender: 451 requested action aborted: too many messages
> on a single connection." This message comes from my anti-
> virus program that scans my outgoing messages. This
> error pops up for every message after the tenth one, and
> none of them actually send, although they do get put in
> the sent items folder.
>
> If the option for "send items immediately" is checked,
> then I get this error message from Outlook Express: "The
> SMTP server returned an error.
> Account: 'mail.comcast.net', Server: 'smtp.comcast.net',
> Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: ' 24.34.69.82 has too
> many connections ( 2 ) on rwcrmhc12', Port: 25, Secure
> (SSL): No, Error Number: 0x800CCC60." The messages go
> into the outbox folder, but then just sit there and
> aren't sent until I press the send/receive button. Then
> the first error occurs.
>
> I'm not sure what to do so that my messages will get
> sent. Why is my server becoming overloaded? If it's not
> possible for me to fix the server problem, is there a way
> I can set it to not put the unsent messages into the sent
> folder? Then, I can keep track of what is not sent and
> just tell it to send them again. Thanks for any help!

The message "too many connections on a single connection" refers to how
many connections are being made to the SMTP mail server. Many ISPs,
including mine, will limit how many connections you make within a
minute. You use the same ISP as I do, and the limit the number of
connections per minute to their SMTP server. They refuse to divulge the
number as they claim that might assist spammers in circumventing their
anti-spam measures but according to you it appears 10 is the maximum
connections allowed per minute.

Instead of sending each e-mail to one recipient, send the message to N
recipients, where N is the maximum number of recipients per message that
your ISP allows. The per-message recipient quota is also a method ISPs
will use to limit the use of "personal" accounts from spamming their
messages to a huge number of recipients. If X is the total number of
recipients, and N is the [maximum] number of recipients allowed per
message, you will have to send X/N copies of your e-mail. Obviously if
you send 1 e-mail to 1 recipient, N = 1 so that X/N = X, and that's what
is getting you into trouble (because X is too large). You then need to
know how many maximum e-mails can be sent per minute. It looks to be
10, so divide X/N by 10 and that's how many times you will have to wait
1 minute between each group of 10 e-mails. Say you have a 1000
recipients but your ISP only allows 25 recipients per message which
means you can only get down to 40 copies of your e-mail (40 x 25 =
1000). You are allowed to only send 10 per minute which means it will
take a minimum of 4 minutes to send those 40 copies (10 in the first
minute, pause until the minute is up, 40 the next minute, pause until
the minute is up, and so on). If you choose not to send to 25
recipients (the max) per message and wanted to send out all 1000 e-mails
as a separate e-mail, you will spend 1000/10, or 100, minutes minimum to
send them all.

This seems a damn good deterrent to spammers since they probably won't
investigate what is the per-message recipient maximum for each mail
server or open relay they use and won't know it for the Windows hosts
they have trojaned, so they send 1 e-mail per 1 recipient and very
quickly hit the 10 e-mails/minute limit at the ISP, and the rest all get
trashed (with non-delivery report e-mails back to the sender). In the
above example, 10 spams get sent (by a spammer or infected host) and the
other 990 get rejected. So how programmable is your bulk mailer? Can
you define how many maximum e-mails to send per minute?

You really need to contact your ISP to find out what are their e-mail
quotas. The maximum disk storage for your Inbox, if the Trash or Bulk
folders are included in that disk quota, the max recipient per message
quota, how many connects per minute, maximum bandwidth per day,
cumulative maximum bandwidth per month, and whatever other quotas or
spam-eradicating measures them employ. Or get a business account to
handle your business needs and which removes or raises the quotas and
max limits. I believe you are violating the Terms of Service in using a
*personal* account for business use. From Comcast's Acceptable Use
Policy:

(xi) transmit unsolicited bulk or commercial messages or "spam." This
includes, but is not limited to, unsolicited advertising, promotional
materials or other solicitation material, bulk mailing of commercial
advertising, chain mail, informational announcements, charity requests,
and petitions for signatures;

(xii) send numerous copies of the same or substantially similar
messages, empty messages, or messages which contain no substantive
content, or send very large messages or files to a recipient that
disrupts a server, account, newsgroup, or chat service;

Even if you believe your numerous same-content message do not qualify as
spam, they do qualify under section xii as a violation. In short, you
ran into their anti-spam measures which restricted your from spewing out
lots of copies of your e-mail and this action violates policy (theirs,
not yours). You'll need to get a better and more programmable e-mail
client, or call Comcast to see what business accounts they provide under
what quota restrictions, or contract the services of a bulk mailing
service. Although I haven't tested it, I believe Comcast is one of
those ISPs that also block port 25 traffic across their domain so you
cannot bypass their anti-spam measures by trying to connect to
off-domain SMTP server.

By the way, unless spam is something you enjoy reading or wasting
resources to eradicate, don't post in newsgroups using an unmunged and
valid e-mail address. You just listed it in a public place known to be
roamed by spambots. 

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