Email List Speed Rate Limits

[jeffryf]

I've been using phpList for several years on Sonic's server. Since Sonic upgraded php two weeks ago, distressing things have happened to this otherwise well-behaved application.

The latest problem I've encountered is that the rate at which email messages are sent dropped like a rock. Previously, it took about an hour and a half to send all of the messages. Monday, I launched the message. By morning only 300 messages had been sent.

The phpList documentation discusses two methods for controlling that rate: throttling and batching. Both are implemented through the config file. They recommend throttling (which sets a pause between each send) of php-cgi implementations--which is what I understand Sonic to be.

Instead of annoying my list with a bunch of trial and error fiddling with the config file, can anyone tell me what the Sonic mail server might be happy with?

[joemuller]

I can assure you we didn't upgrade PHP. (We did migrate people with MySQL4 databases over to MySQL 5.)

I took a look at our logs - nothing seems to be dropping, but I definitely recommend throttling, as that is fairest to all involved.

If you don't mind having an opt-in mailing list, you may want to consider setting up a list with us, which may solve some of the issues you are having.

[Jeffry Fawcett]

Thanks.

Mailman is worth considering. However, the salient question is whether it will send any faster. If not, I don't see the incentive to learning and implementing a new application.

Do you know what the mailman send rate is?

[kgc]

Mailman is a discussion list server, and not well suited for broadcast only list traffic. PhpList, although I have never used it myself, is one of the applications that I'd recommend for things like newsletters. However, I believe that it is also known to be a bit on the poky side and poorly optimized. There are a lot of google hits for phplist and performance tuning.