mass emailing - bad emails

All, I'm sure this has been covered before, but does anyone have any tips on detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database.  Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all email servers return a different type of message? Thanks, Craig

oi Fregas!! I've (in the past) set up a filter in my email client that grabs returned msgs then i export them all to a text file. parse thru them to grab the email addy's then del those from the db.... --------- Critz Macromedia Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer   <CFX_BotMaster Network="Efnet" Channel="ColdFusion">    ------------------------------------ Saturday, August 10, 2002, 11:07:20 AM, you wrote: F> All, F> I'm sure this has been covered before, but does anyone have any tips on detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done F> but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database.  Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all F> email servers return a different type of message? F> Thanks, F> Craig F>

There are some email validation tags out on the exchange gallery. I have seen some that actually check that they are not only properly formatted, but that they are also real email address. Perhaps you could grab one of these and then you can set it up as a scheduled event to run and keep the db clean. Here are is one that I have found: (be careful, URL's tend to wrap) http://devex.macromedia.com/developer/gallery/info.cfm?ID=28121CF2-8A73- 11D5-83F300508B94F85A&method=Full HTH, Bruce All, I'm sure this has been covered before, but does anyone have any tips on detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database.  Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all email servers return a different type of message? Thanks, Craig

oi Fregas!! also there is a program at mach5.com that does some checking of emails as it sends them out...all the failed ones go into a comma delimited file..etc nice little proggy --------- Critz Macromedia Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer   <CFX_BotMaster Network="Efnet" Channel="ColdFusion"> ------------------------------------ Saturday, August 10, 2002, 11:07:20 AM, you wrote: F> All, F> I'm sure this has been covered before, but does anyone have any tips on detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done F> but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database.  Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all F> email servers return a different type of message? F> Thanks, F> Craig F>

Check your logs for returned emails. Then delete them from the database. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Emails that are sent to a remote server can be rejected in one of two ways - either immediately or deferred.  When an email is rejected immediately the sending server is immediately notified via an error code.  The error code can indicate that the address has failed on a temporary (mailbox full, for example) or permanent basis (mailbox does not exist, for example).  If the rejection is deferred (bounce message) then the remote mail server will send an error notification via email to the sender of the email (AOL does this, for example).  So, you need to monitor for both immediate and deferred rejections in order to maintain your address list properly.  Unfortunately, CFMAIL (and all other CFMAIL replacements) do not allow you to monitor these rejections easily. You can, however, easily do this with iMS-SE.  iMS-SE allows you to monitor immediate temporary and permanent rejections and also to handle incoming bounce messages all via ColdFusion templates.  So, if you need a low-cost solution to automate the process of list management with ColdFusion, then iMS-SE is the way to go.  iMS is the mail sending engine behind this list, BTW. You can download a 60-day fully functional trial of iMS-SE from our web site. HTH, -- Howie Hamlin - inFusion Project Manager On-Line Data Solutions, Inc. - www.CoolFusion.com  - 631-737-4668 x101 inFusion Mail Server (iMS) - The Award-winning, Intelligent Mail Server >>> Find out how iMS Stacks up to the competition: http://www.coolfusion.com/imssecomparison.cfm > All, > > I'm sure this has been covered before, but does anyone have any tips on detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database.  Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all email servers return a different type of message? > > Thanks, > Craig

Which logs would I check?  THe cfmail logs? Let me specify a little.  I want this to all be automatic by coldfusion.  I want coldfusion to check the mail using cfpop, filter the "rejected" email addresses and delete them from a sql server database. Thanks all, Craig ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database. Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all email servers return a different type of message? ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

We use MailBot by Oprea and it has worked very, very well for our needs. It autochecks on a Cfschedule a mailbox you create that you send email from; and when it detects a hard bounce, it removes it from the list and puts in a separate Removed Subscribers list so that if you really cared a lot, you could download to excel and review. Just a thought. Regards, Eric J Hoffman DataStream Connexion www.datastreamconnexion.com Delivering Creative Data Solutions Which logs would I check?  THe cfmail logs? Let me specify a little.  I want this to all be automatic by coldfusion. I want coldfusion to check the mail using cfpop, filter the "rejected" email addresses and delete them from a sql server database. Thanks all, Craig ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database. Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all email servers return a different type of message? ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

All coldfusion? OK, then send all emails with the same FROM address. Run a scheduled job to POP the FROM address's mailbox. Parse the messages and delete. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

that's exactly what I want to do.  I just want to know, what should I be looking for?  Is there a mail header, error number, etc. that I can specifically look for? Craig ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- I > > want coldfusion to check the mail using cfpop, filter the "rejected" email ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- database. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- on > > detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?   I > > have a client that needs some mass emailing done but she wants the returned > > emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database. > > Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Probably subject line "Undeliver" Better yet, send an email to fdfd@sfdd.com and see what the bounce email looks like. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Nah... it's waaay harder than that. Email bounces in any number of different ways. Exchange bounces different than Postfix which is different than Exim which is different than AOL's mail servers. Plus, email can bounce for any number of different reasons. For instance, you do want to delete someone from your list if their account is invalid, but not if their quota is maxed out. You have to deal with vacation messages and autoreplies, too... I wrote a bunch of custom code to do this through a seemingly endless series of trial and error -- it ain't pretty, but I'll gladly share with whoever wants it. It uses cfpop to check a box every 15 minutes for emails and grabs probably 85% of bounces. For what it's worth, this hasn't come up very often and I've been wondering how other people with large lists deal with bounces. The best thing, probably, though, is to check the emails on the way in. That actually solves a huge percentage of the problem. Validate the email address by sending an email to the person who signs up. They, then, have to click a link to turn their account on, so to speak.   -- jon Probably subject line "Undeliver" Better yet, send an email to fdfd@sfdd.com and see what the bounce email looks like. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- a ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- coldfusion. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- tips > on > > > detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing? I ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

> Nah... it's waaay harder than that. > > Email bounces in any number of different ways. Exchange bounces different > than Postfix which is different than Exim which is different than AOL's mail > servers. He is sending from one mailserver. That mailserver will give the same Subject on each bounce. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

No... it's the other mail servers that are the problem.   -- j > Nah... it's waaay harder than that. > > Email bounces in any number of different ways. Exchange bounces different > than Postfix which is different than Exim which is different than AOL's mail > servers. He is sending from one mailserver. That mailserver will give the same Subject on each bounce. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- Run > a > > > scheduled job to POP the FROM address's mailbox. Parse the messages and ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- emailing? ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- specifically ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Are you saying that the receiving mail server generates the bounce message and sends it back to the sender mail server? How would a bad email get to these other mailservers? How would the email know where to go. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

There are lots of different types of bad email. There are invalid addresses -- that's one type of bad email. But let's say a person signs up for a email list then shuts down their account. That's a different type of bounce. Accounts are shut down all the time for all kinds of reasons... people change jobs, change isps, etc...   -- jon Are you saying that the receiving mail server generates the bounce message and sends it back to the sender mail server? How would a bad email get to these other mailservers? How would the email know where to go. ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- different ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- be ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- "rejected" ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more ----- any ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

The receiving mail server sends a failure notification to either the address specified in the return-path header of the email or the sender of the email.  So, if you send an email to a bad AOL address you should receive a failure notification in your mailbox. HTH, -- Howie Hamlin - inFusion Project Manager On-Line Data Solutions, Inc. - www.CoolFusion.com  - 631-737-4668 x101 inFusion Mail Server (iMS) - The Award-winning, Intelligent Mail Server ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----

Fregas wrote: > All, > > I'm sure this has been covered before, but does anyone have any tips on detecting bounced or bad email addresses after doing a mass emailing?  I have a client that needs some mass emailing done but she wants the returned emails due to unknown or expired email accounts deleted from her database.  Any ideas?  Is there something in the email headers i can specifically look for or do all email servers return a different type of message? Errors can occur on many points. First step is when CF delivers the email to your SMTP server. That is pretty easy to filter using the mail.log file. (This is not an endorsement of cfmail for mass emailing, but I know people do it.) Next is when your SMTP server tries to deliver to the other MTA. Easy if your SMTP server keeps logs. RFC 2821 gives a list of SMTP errors. But basically 5xx errors are permanent, and 4xx errors temporarily. Delete all 5xx errors from your list of email addresses. And if 4xx errors occur a few times after eachother delete them as well. Next is the list of delayed bounces due to mailbox full errors etc. from the local delivery agent, and possibly other errors if you are routed through a mail gateway that is not the final server. That is also the part where it gets tricky. You could try setting a return path so you at least get them in some special mailbox. (In case of using CF, has anybody ever tried writing email where the envelope-from wasn't the same as the from to the cf spooldir? Might also result in bounces going to the envelope-from.) Anyway, the mailbox where all this ends up is where all bets are off. You will get 4xx, 5xx and non-standard erros for up to about 2 weeks after your mailing. You can parse a good part of them (I think there is a customtag for that in the DevEx) but there will always be errors that require manual handling to get it 100% perfect. This is also where dozens of Klez, Yaha, and BadTrans virusses will inevitably end up. And you probably don't want the senders of those to be unsubscribed automatically (the sender emailaddress is usually faked). Jochem

Fregas wrote: > Which logs would I check?  THe cfmail logs? > > Let me specify a little.  I want this to all be automatic by coldfusion.  I > want coldfusion to check the mail using cfpop, filter the "rejected" email > addresses and delete them from a sql server database. Forget "automatic by ColdFusion". There is no such thing. Even on this list, where we can assume most people are responsible professionals and the unsubscribe notice is on the end of every message people have problems unsubscribing. Unless you are mailing IT minded people, multiply this by a hundred because people are clueless. Multiply this by another 100 because if people subscribe to this list they get so many emails within a day that they can still remember that they have subscribed, while it appears that you are mailing an existing userbase of which it is unlikely that they all know they are in your database. If your mailings are of an advertisement/commercial nature, even if they are double opt-in, throw in an annoyance factor, an "I don't remember I opted-in" factor and you will see the trouble you are getting. If you want it fully automatic, outsource it (but better check the credentials of the company you outsource it to). Jochem

no, I think you are missing the point.  I don't care if they "opt-out" or not.  That's their problem, not mine.  I just want to be able to programatically detect whether a mail server spits back an email that says the address we sent to does not exist or something, so I can delete these old emails of the list. Craig > Fregas wrote: > > Which logs would I check?  THe cfmail logs? > > > > Let me specify a little.  I want this to all be automatic by coldfusion. I > > want coldfusion to check the mail using cfpop, filter the "rejected" email ----- Excess quoted text cut - see Original Post for more -----