Preferences

As installed, CustomMailer will start up with default settings for a number of preferences. Use the Preferences command under the Settings menu to change any of these values.

NOTE: If you are an existing CustomMailer 3.0 or 2.0 customer, then the very first time CustomMailer 4.0 runs it will automatically find and import your CustomMailer 3.0 or 2.0 Preferences and Macros, assuming you haven't uninstalled or moved your existing version of CustomMailer.

There are five categories of preferences grouped under Preferences dialog tabs:

SMTP server:

SMTP (outgoing mail) server. Enter the name of the SMTP for your company or Internet Service Provider here. The "SMTP Setup Wizard" will start up the first time you run CustomMailer to help you identify your SMTP mail server name, test that it is working, and set this value in Preferences.

NOTE: CustomMailer also allows you to enter "test" as the SMTP server. This causes CustomMailer to simulate sending email messages without actually sending any emails out. You can use this to "dry run" your use of CustomMailer before you are ready to send real email.

SMTP port: You can change the SMTP port number used to send mail. On most installations this value is the SMTP standard port number 25 and doesn't not need to be changed. However, in special situations, your network administrator may have changed the port number to a different number for security or authorization reasons. Consult your network administrator if you aren't sure.

SMTP timeout: CustomMailer will give up after this period of time in seconds if it appears you are not connected to the Internet or if your connection drops. Usually a number like 30 seconds is adequate for most installations.

Direct Send: The CustomMailer Enterprise Edition has the ability to send email directly to your recipient's SMTP server instead of the conventional method of sending email to your own SMTP server which relays it to your recipient's SMTP server. One advantage of this is that you can send email even if your SMTP server is down or if it is not accessible from your internet connection (for example, if you plug your laptop computer into someone else's internet connection). It is also a way to avoid overloading your SMTP server if you send a lot of email and it doesn't have enough capacity or if it places restrictions on you such as how many emails you can send per day. The emails will also get to your recipients somewhat faster since they don't have to be relayed. A disadvantage is that your email sending will slow down somewhat because CustomMailer has to perform a separate DNS lookup for each email recipient. If you use this feature, it is advisable to enter the local DNS servers in your Preferences (see below) to keep from going even slower, though it will still work if you leave these empty. Another disadvantage is that you will not be able to send to any TO, CC, or BCC address outside of that recipient's site, including yourself. This is because while your SMTP server will let you send to anyone, someone else's SMTP server will only let you send to recipients at their site and will not "relay" to anyone else (including you) for security reasons. Direct Send is therefore typically used with a single TO address and no CC or BCC addresses.

Delay n seconds after every m emails: Certain SMTP servers do not have the bandwidth to keep up with the large volume of messages CustomMailer can generate and will choke if messages arrive faster than they can be relayed out. If you experience this problem, you can specify a delay value and a number of messages to indicate a number of seconds CustomMailer should pause after each time it sends out that number of consecutive messages in order to throttle CustomMailer's sending rate. Most CustomMailer users should be unaffected by this problem and can set the delay value to zero.

SMTP authentication: Check the "Enabled" box if your organization or Internet service provider requires that you use a special name and password to use your SMTP (outgoing) mail server. Then enter the name and password in the fields shown. Thereafter, each time CustomMailer sends an email message it will encode and send your name and password to your SMTP server. The CustomMailer SMTP Setup Wizard will detect whether you need to use this feature and help you set up and test the name and password.

NOTE: Microsoft Outlook users can also determine if they need to use this feature by going under the Tools menu, select "Services...", choose the "Services" tab, double-click "Internet E-Mail", then in the "Mail Account Properties" window click on "Servers", and in the "Login Information" section see if a name and password appear under "Login using:". Microsoft Outlook Express users can go to the Tools menu, select "Account", click on the "Mail" tab, double-click on your SMTP server, click on the "Servers" tab, see whether "My server requires authentication" is checked on the Outgoing Mail Server box, and click on "Settings" to check for the name and password. Netscape Messenger users can check under Edit: Preferences: Mail & Newsgroups: Mail Servers whether the field "Outgoing mail server user name" is specified (when mail is subsequently sent, Netscape prompts for the password).

The technical standard implemented by SMTP authentication is known as "RFC 2554". CustomMailer supports both the "LOGIN" and "PLAIN" authentication protocols. NOTE: some SMTP servers say they support SMTP authentication but don't actually require it. The SMTP Setup Wizard will let you test this possibility. In this case, you may be able to disable SMTP authentication and still send mail OK.

POP before SMTP authentication: Some SMTP servers implement a security feature known as "POP before SMTP authentication". Essentially, this means you have to read your email before you can send email. Before SMTP authentication came along, some SMTP servers used this technique to identify authorized senders since POP (mail reading) has always required a name and password, even though SMTP (send) historically did not. If you enter your POP server name, user name, and password in the fields provided, CustomMailer will use them to "read" your email automatically before you send emails. CustomMailer doesn't actually read any of your email messages but rather just logs into your POP server, which is enough to satisfy the POP before SMTP authentication protocol.

Proxy ("socks") server: Check the "Enabled" box if your organization uses a firewall and you wish to access an SMTP server outside the firewall. Enter the proxy server name in the text field (to obtain this name, ask your network administrator or use the same name used in the preferences of your browser).

DNS (domain name) servers: These are used by CustomMailer only if you use the Verify Addresses feature under the Tools menu or the Direct send feature (see above). Even in these cases the DNS names are optional, as CustomMailer will use several known public DNS servers if you don't provide any entries. However, if you provide the DNS servers local to your company (or Internet Service Provider), the Verify Addresses feature will work faster.

Your DNS servers are specified by four numbers separated by periods, for example: 123.94.27.102. There are usually two such servers for any Internet connection. To find out your DNS servers, you can:

1. bring up an MS-DOS command window and enter the command: ipconfig/all
2. under Start: Settings: Control Panel, open your Network control panel, under Configuration select your TCP/IP component and click on Properties, then select the DNS Configuration tab (this exact sequence varies on different versions of Windows). Instead of actual DNS addresses, you may have this set up to "Obtain DNS server address automatically", in which case use method 1) above.
3. or, ask your network administrator or Internet Service Provider.
   

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