Sending to multiple email addresses

[Michaela-CAVS]

Hi

Is there a maximum number of contacts an email can be sent to.   We have meeting distrution lists for various meetings and some of them are in excess of 50 recipients.  I can use Outlook Express without a problem but my colleague is using Microsoft Outlook and receives the error message 'Too many recipients'.

Thanks

[sambadabing]

I think it has been restricted to 50 emails at a time due to a new spamming filter being put in place. Anything over 50 will get the rejected message as it is being seen as spam.

[Diamond88]

Hi,

I've had a similar query and managed to find this FAQ about sending emails to multiple addresses helpful.

Hope this helps.

Message Edited by James on 27-01-2009 11:28 AM

[Rodka]

Thanks for the answers everyone. It hardly seems worth having BT Business package. We are thinking of moving; can anyone suggest a good email provider for a business?

Many thanks

Rodka

[blondemoments]

Hello Rodka

Until November 08, we were able to e-mail approx 475 clients (who have actually requested information) at one time.  Suddenly, without any notice from BT, we can now only send to 50 at a time.  To say that this is inconvenient is putting it mildly.  In various discussions with BT, I have been advised that the maximum is 25, 50 and 199 at a time.  I spent many hours splitting my lists down into 199 and tried to send an e-mail yesterday - it was rejected!  I again spoke with BT and was advised that 50 is now the maximum.  I have complained, but am still waiting for a response.  I have been very loyal to BT for many years (despite many tempting offers to move the account elsewhere).  As BT is now threatening the survival of my business, I am prepared to move elsewhere.  Have you had any advice from other members as to who is a good e-mail provider for business?  Many thanks

Blonde Moments

[Rodka]

Dear Blonde Moment.

With the Christmas and New Year break we have not had to send out emails, but of course now we are in 2009 we must get business going again.

The assistance from BT has been minimal, after spending hours on the phone to them and asking for a daily update of the progress with the 'problem'.

It looks like BT has decided on this 50 limit and is not prepared to assist with the problem. We left AOL a few years back because of the same problem. One assistant told me to un plug and the re plug my router which should give a different isp number - it didnt work and it doesnt seem that you can get throught to anyone who can actually DO anything. What a way to treat business customers - it could only happen in England!

Let me know how you are getting on.

Cheers

Rodka

[TheOtherOne]

Hi folks,

The limit on the number of emails depends on which package you're on, that article that Diamond88 found there is pretty good as it explains what each package's limit is.

Looks like the maximum is 500 if sent via Outlook RPC/HTTPS, so I am guessing that's what you are using Blonde Moments (or were you on the Email Lite package all along and BT changed the email limit recently? Only asking because I thought the Lite package always had a "cap" of 50 emails, but I could be wrong).

I guess anyone that's on the Email Lite package might need to upgrade if 50 isn't enough. In this day and age the use of email is vital for any business, so the higher the limit the better!

TheOtherOne

[MadDragon]

I am absolutely breathing fire about this one. Have just been told by BT that unless we pay an extra £7.50 per month for the 'Organise and Share' package, introduced without warning, we will no longer be able to send to more than 50 recipients at a time. We are a small theatre with a few hundred people on the mailing list. This money grabbing exercise by BT has actually cost us money and made us look unprofessional.

[Rodka]

Maybe BT just doesnt want business customers. You would think that the managment of BT would get someone on these boards to give us some decent answers..................

[Kirok]

Its a bit of a hack but the ways around the limit without paying for the service would be to:

• Use bulk/mass mailer software and break the distribution list into chunks of 50 then send out email to each chunk say once every 30 secondes or a minute
• Use some scripted of bespoke software solution that does the same
• Do it manually
• Setup a mailing list

All of these may require some setup or IT knowledge.

I have scripts I wrote for people that work on Windows and Linux (if your using Entourage check here) that do this but its plain-text only messages and they require editiing each time. I'd post them but I don't want to support them til the end of time. If you have IT guys check with them.

Now with that said I'm going to go off on a bit of a rant:

BTs E-mail/DNS infrastructure is laughable, this is just another way of them trying to ease the load and stop abuse. Its not really their fault though they more contribute to an ongoing problem in the IT field. I suspect they hire the type of person described below.

Theres an every-man-and-his-dog thing going on right now in IT. In that everyone thinks they can do it.

Certification boot camps or the whole certification mentality don't help. Neither do some of the University or College courses out there with low standards, a tendency to pass people, not prepare them for professional life and an inability to teach them relevant stuff. I'm saying this with direct experience as I've worked with people who had a long list of certifications and I'm currently a student.

A lot of them get the job because the interviewers in a lot of situations have less knowledge and all they need to do is BS or stay one lesson ahead or be really good with home computer stuff.

People like this really need to be culled, they lower the reputation of all IT guys, they saturate the market and they could push out someone knowledgeable if they made a better first impression or have better people skills. Technical or practical interviews would be a good way but then the company would either need to outsource this or already have someone with technical knowledge.

On the subject of nepotism, the odd nepotistic hire is fine but don't fill the department with your friends or drinking buddies unless they can do the job.

If anyone reading this has hiring authority, don't hire based on degree, don't hire based on certification. If possible run your own tests and hire based on that. Even something like like pulliing a couple of problems from a forum that have already been solved and asking how the person being interviewed would solve them, if you don't have the ability to set your own tests or do something practical.

Thats not to say everyone with certifications or a degree is an idiot some people get them to be competitive or because it looks good on a CV.

Anyway end of rant.

Message Edited by Kirok on 08-01-2009 10:51 PM