Hello Shahul,

I want to verify my understanding, is it we are in the same page.
You already set the email processing inside Easyblog setting and now the settings is 20 mails per hour. You want to increase the number of mails to be sent out.
Have you setup the cronjob? It will allows you to send more mail.

Can you provide us with the Joomla back end access as well as the FTP access so that I can check on the issues on your site?
We actually need these information so that we can debug on your issues quickly. If your site is hosted locally, could you please upload it to a temporary location for us to access?

Please be advise.
Thanks.

Thanks for the prompt response. And sorry for not being clear enough in the first post. Here are some clarifications -


I didn't set the limit to the number of emails. It was set by my hosting provider at their level in the server.
If that level is to be increased, that can be done only by the hosting provider, not by me or EasyBlog.
My question is, can we tweak the settings in EasyBlog in such a way that the mails are not sent all at once, but maybe at a rate of 20 per hour?


Anyway, the hosting provider says the issue can be solved if I try MailChimp. So I am going to try the MailChimp integration in EasyBlog. Shall get back to you if that does not work.

Hello Shahul,

Thanks for your explaination.

Looking forward to hear from you again.

Please be advise.
Thanks.

Dear Yasser,

The hosting company says they cannot increase the number of mails I can send in an hour.

So, what I would like to know is, can we do any tweaks in EasyBlog so that, when a new article is posted, only 20 notification mails are posted in the first hour, another twenty is posted in the next hour, and so on?

Using MailChimp is not an option as I will have to manually create and send the mails, and will lose the functionality offered by EasyBlog to send automatic notification mails.

Thanks in advance.

Hello Shahul,

I am sorry for the late reply and currently weekend here.

Have you setup the cronjob? Cronjobs suits your problem very much. Its helps you to set mail interval, for example 20 mails per hour and another 20 mails in the next hour. You can refer this from : http://stackideas.com/docs/easyblog/how-tos/setting-up-cronjobs-in-cpanel if you are using cPanel or else here: http://stackideas.com/docs/easydiscuss/cronjobs .

If you encounter problems please don't hesitate to contact us and we will assist you on this issues.
Hope this can help you.
Thanks.

Why don't you bypass your hosting company's SMTP servers altogether?

Setup a Gmail, or any other account and set Joomla to use this for all email in Global Configuration>Server.

Better still, sign up a mandrill account and set this account as your SMTP server, or install CMandrill and have it set it all up for you. Mailchimp intergration is not the answer here.

Thanks, Yasser and Mark for the help.

I am not an expert who knows cron commands and all. So, for the time being, I have changed the mail settings as suggested by Mark. Please see the attached image. Hope I have done it right.

Thanks once again for the wonderful support.

That looks ok, but you aren't using any security. Your password and all emails will be sent in plain unencrypted text.

First try TLS over port 465 or 587, if that doesn't work, set it to SSL. Don't use port 25 without security.

Also, are you ok with your website's users having that email address, instead of one relating to the domain?

Here's my advice for the ultimate setup...

1. Sign up for a free mandrill account and copy the API key which you'll find in settings

2. Install CMandrill (free) plugin, turn it on and enter the API key from step one.

3. Sit back and enjoy trouble free outbound server email and the ability to track who has received your messages and wether or not they've read it.

One of mandrill's killer features is the ability to pause sending of mails. Ideal for testing a new feature of component.

Once you have this working, have a read of this:

http://help.mandrill.com/entries/21751322-What-are-SPF-and-DKIM-and-do-I-need-to-set-them-up-

You don't have to set these up, but it is better for a number of reasons to do so.

Dear Mark,

Thanks a lot for the detailed response. I did the following:

1. Got Mandrill API Key
2. Installed cMandrill
3. Enabled the plugin
4. Entered the API key there.
5. Entered other settings as shown in the attached image
6. Checked if the system is working by subscribing to the blog from my wife's email account - The notification mail reached her email account.

However, now the problem is,I do not get the notification mail to my account that I used to get when a new member subscribes to the blog.

If possible, have a look at my site's back end settings. I have included the details below.

Thanks in advance...

That's great!

1. Check your spam

2. Did the mail reach mandrill? Check Outgoing>Activity. If it isn't there, you need to check EasyBlog's settings. The good thing about using mandrill is that it gives you visibility on what is happening with your emails.

3 if it did sent, but wasn't received by your email provider, then read the document I linked to earlier about setting up an SPF record this will ensure that email providers such as Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail etc. 'trust ' Mandrill as a sender if email for your domain.

Sorry, I can't login as I'm only a member here! The other (Stackideas) Mark (Mark Lee) should be able to help.

By the way, now you have CMandrill setup, the settings in Global Configuration are redundant. Set it back to PHP mail. This way CMandrill and Mandrill will handle all emails, but your server on your host will be a fallback. Also, the settings you have in their could lead to messages being marked as spam, as the sender and SMTP domains are different setting it back to PHP mail will sole this.

Thanks for taking the time to help, and my apologies for taking you to be from the support team.

The message is not in my spam folder.

Mandrill does show outgoing activity.

Notification mails are enabled in easyblog's settings.

Changed general configuration back to PhpMail.

Anyway, it is not a big issue if I do not get the notification mail. The issue is if the notification mails are sent to my subscribers when I post a new article. I will post one new article in 2-3 days, and shall let you know what happens. In the meantime, I shall also explore the SPF record.

Thanks, once again.

That's OK

Yes, if mandrill is showing outgoing, it is likely SPF/DKIM/SPAM related. This would happen anyway by the way, the difference is now you can actually see what's happening. Soon mandrill with show a failure for that message.

Better to add SPF and DKIM info in your DNS now so that your subscribers receive all of your emails. Subscribers using the same email host as the one you didn't receive the notification on could equally be affected, therefore getting this right will pay dividends.

Hello Shahul Ameen,

Have your issues have been solved?

Hello Mark H,

Thanks for the help.

Mark and Yasser,

My hosting provider helped me edit the DNS settings, and my Mandrill account now has valid DKIM and SPF. The routine notification mails are passing through smoothly. I plan to post a new article tomorrow, and shall let you know if the bulk notification mails get through without issues,

Thanking you both once again,

Shahul.

You're welcome Shahul, glad it worked out!

Dear Yasser and Mark,

I posted the new article today.

Mail pool part of easyblog says it has sent the notification mail to all the 30+ users.

Mandrill stats also show that 32 mails have been delivered.

My wife's email account (with rediff.com) has received the notification mail.

However, neither of my two accounts, in Yahoo and Gmail, have received them.

Last time I had received the rejection message from my hosting provider. This time, maybe because I am using Mandrill servers, I did not receive any such messages.

I checked the Google Analytics data to see if anyone has visited the site from any email accounts today. There is no such data, but it is too early to say.

In the Easyblog settings, there is a question "Process how many emails at a time" and my setting is 5. Do you think it would be a better idea to increase it? (I have sent the "Send emails on page load" option to Yes.

What do you guys think?

Hello Shahul Ameen,

I am sorry for the late reply.
If I understand this correctly, before this, some of your emails did delivered and some don't isn't? And you did received a rejection email from your hosting provider. Can I know what was the content of the rejection email? So that we might know how to assist you on this. It's like beat around the bush.

From my understanding, now all of your emails did delivered but didn't arrived to the respective receiver. After I checked and tested your Easyblog->Mail Activity, it shows all emails has been delivered but not received. We cannot really identify the root issues and maybe you might need to consult with your hosting provider regarding this issues.

I am so sorry and please do update us on this issue.
Thanks.

If the messages are getting through to Mandrill, then you don't need to worry about any setting in EasyBlog etc. The emails are being sent.

If they are showing as delivered in Mandrill>Outbound>Activity, then assume they have been delivered, although you still may later receive a bounce message, so do wait a day or two. This could reveal some info.

Check the spam folder on your accounts just in case. Also, in Mandrill's activist, do you see open statistics for any of the emails?

Hello Mark,

Thanks for sharing.

@ Yasser: You said "After I checked and tested your Easyblog->Mail Activity, it shows all emails has been delivered but not received. " How can we find out whether a mail has been received or not from the EasyBlog backend?

I think the content of the original rejection letter is not relevant now. (It has said "the server allows only 20 mails from a domain per hour")

@ Mark: I have attached a screenshot of my mandrill activity. (Hope it will be visible to you.) It shows a deliverability of 70%. Again, my question is, why didn't the mails reach my yahoo and gmail accounts? (They didn't reach my spam folders either)

I am receiving occasional mails sent by other extensions like DMC Firewall without fail to the same accounts.

Anyway, I don't mind not receiving the mails if the same are being properly delivered to the other registered users ;-)

Hello Shahul,

I am sorry for the late reply.
I cant access your site since the secret key is invalid/expired. Can you check for me if the notification emails are sent or not without Mandrill integration? I want to make sure if there is a problem with Easyblog notification.

Please be advise.
Thanks.