Bulk Email failure PC+ 10.4

[uucwadmin]

Computer: Windows XP 5.1 SP3
PC+: 10.4 MR 7/14/09 (Current)
Internet: Verizon DSL Small Business

Previous to these problems beginning, I was successfully sending a weekly newsletter with a PDF attachment to 318 email addresses weekly. We ceased sending the attachment, so it was just a plain text weekly email. Again, these were sent with no problem.

About 2 months ago, we started encountering an issue where some (30-40) of the emails would go but the rest would come up on the post-sending report with the following errors (generally all 3 would appear):

4.2.1 Authentications from (our e-mail)@verizon.net are declined

or

Connection from 70.22.205.133 not accepted at this time

or

Connection to server failed

I've been on the phone numerous times with Verizon trying to track down whether they have changed to some draconian new e-mail policy and according to them, they have not. They have not been terribly helpful, as expected, because i am not sending the emails through Outlook. Apparently, they only speak Microsoft, what a shock (not).

I changed the e-mail settings to send in groups of 50 every 20 minutes, figuring that might defeat any anti-spam nonsense going on at Verizon's end. It partially fixed the problem, in that about half of the emails (177 out of 318) went successfully, the rest were on the post-send report with the error:

4.2.1 Authentications from (our email)@verizon.net are declined

This is a problem sending out the newsletter, and the email contribution statements as well.

If I send something in similar groups of 50 addresses in the BCC field through Outlook, by the way, it works just fine, which does incline me to think that it is not Verizon causing the problem, that something about the way Powerchurch sends these bulk e-mails is causing this. Please advise.

[Zorak]

We have several other customers that recently reported similar issues with Verizon, either e-mails not sending, or not responsive servers, etc. A change that Verizon recently made, according to their web site, is they now require e-mail to be sent on a specific port number, which is 587.

So, in theory, you should be able to set the smtp server in PowerChurch as "outgoing.verizon.net:587" without quotes. Your authentication settings and everything else can stay the same, just add the :587 on the end.

[uucwadmin]

Thank you Zorak! I'm going to try it now, and hope it works. If it does not I will let you know...in fact, I will let you know either way.

[uucwadmin]

I'm afraid that did not work. 143 of the e-mails still returned an error:
4.2.1 Authentications from uuworcester@verizon.net are declined.

Might this have anything to so with putting our aliased email (office at uucworcester dot org) in the reply-to field? Grasping at straws here.

[NeilZ]

I'm afraid that did not work. 143 of the e-mails still returned an error:
4.2.1 Authentications from uuworcester@verizon.net are declined.

Might this have anything to so with putting our aliased email (office at uucworcester dot org) in the reply-to field? Grasping at straws here.

FWIW ... since you're sending out the mail, including an 'aliased' email address really isn't hiding anything since anyone can check the sending email to get the address. Not sure if that would cause this error, but its worth a try.

Also, are these rejected email addresses all at the same location, or are they all over different ISPs ?

[Zorak]

If I send something in similar groups of 50 addresses in the BCC field through Outlook, by the way, it works just fine, which does incline me to think that it is not Verizon causing the problem, that something about the way Powerchurch sends these bulk e-mails is causing this. Please advise.

Sending an e-mail this way, with all the addresses in the BCC, is actually only sending one message from Outlook. PowerChurch Plus will send an individual message to everyone on the list.

For what it's worth, it is only Verizon that we have been hearing about lately. Of course, there are always issues with people getting their e-mail set up properly, but where a bunch of the messages send successfully, then a bunch more fail with the server messages that you are getting, it's Verizon-specific. Unfortunately, the other users that have reported this problem have also worked with Verizon's support and not gotten any answers either.

[CAPC-Admin]

I am having problems with sending Quarterly Statements, and would like to know if my problem is the same as this one.
"Verizon" told me that their restrictions are "not more than 99 in a group email, and not more than 500 emails per hour".
When I try to send the Statements by email, about 20 - 25 of them go out, but then the rest are rejected (I have about 70 people to whom I could be sending email Statements).

Now I am thinking that this is a different problem than what you are describing, because you are sending one email to many people, while the Statements are individual emails to individual people. Do you have a problem sending individual emails?
I am thinking of setting up a mailing where I will be sending one email to a large group, but most of the people are not currently on PowerChurch (we use an excel file to create the mailing labels, but want to move to primarily email). Before I go through all the work of putting the people into PowerChurch, I want to know that I will be able to send the email.

[NeilZ]

I am having problems with sending Quarterly Statements, and would like to know if my problem is the same as this one.
"Verizon" told me that their restrictions are "not more than 99 in a group email, and not more than 500 emails per hour".
When I try to send the Statements by email, about 20 - 25 of them go out, but then the rest are rejected (I have about 70 people to whom I could be sending email Statements).

Now I am thinking that this is a different problem than what you are describing, because you are sending one email to many people, while the Statements are individual emails to individual people. Do you have a problem sending individual emails?
I am thinking of setting up a mailing where I will be sending one email to a large group, but most of the people are not currently on PowerChurch (we use an excel file to create the mailing labels, but want to move to primarily email). Before I go through all the work of putting the people into PowerChurch, I want to know that I will be able to send the email.

This would have been better in a new topic, as this (at first glance) does not appear to be the same problem.

That said, we need some specific information.

1. What is the error message you're receiving ??
2. What were you thinking of mailing to a large group ??

FWIW ... each email sent out by Powerchurch, whether statements, or using the <I>send email to a group </i> function is sent out as an individual email.

Now, why Verizon is limiting your emails is confusing. Are you on a business account with them ??

[CAPC-Admin]

I wasn't sure whether to post here or start a new topic, but when I saw Verizon problems, I figured to go here.

To answer your questions:
1. I don't actually know what the message was that was received. The statements were run by the Bookkeeper; and while I saw them running, and quitting after sending the emails to 20ish members, I had forgotten about the forums, so I didn't think to write down anything at that time. I don't remember seeing any error code or error message, it simply seemed like it thought it was done with all of the statements to be emailed, and printed the rest.
2. I would like to use PP+ to email the monthly newsletter, or at least point to where it can be found on our website (approximately 200 emails).

As far as your question about Verizon. Yes, we are a business account with Verizon, and I believe that when I was speaking to them, it was to the Business Support Team. Should there not be limitations on business accounts?

[NeilZ]

I wasn't sure whether to post here or start a new topic, but when I saw Verizon problems, I figured to go here.

To answer your questions:
1. I don't actually know what the message was that was received. The statements were run by the Bookkeeper; and while I saw them running, and quitting after sending the emails to 20ish members, I had forgotten about the forums, so I didn't think to write down anything at that time. I don't remember seeing any error code or error message, it simply seemed like it thought it was done with all of the statements to be emailed, and printed the rest.
2. I would like to use PP+ to email the monthly newsletter, or at least point to where it can be found on our website (approximately 200 emails).

As far as your question about Verizon. Yes, we are a business account with Verizon, and I believe that when I was speaking to them, it was to the Business Support Team. Should there not be limitations on business accounts?

From what I can tell, without the actual error message, is that you're getting a 'time out' from the server. Since you're on a business account, this shouldn't be happening, and based on the 500 emails an hour, it shouldn't affect you whatsoever.

Powerchurch does not sent out emails like a 'group' email, each email is sent individually, so you wouldn't have that handicap. That said, I would look at using the advanced email setup.

That is, set the Advanced Sending Options that can be found under the Preferences -> System Setup Options -> Email tab. You should set it up to send no more than 25 emails every 5 minutes.

Using this may get around any issues that you are seeing from Verizon.

However, not having the exact error message either from Powerchurch (if any) or as part of the rejected emails leaves us in the dark, and all we can do is guess.