BulkMailer Frequently Asked Questions

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When I start sending the mail I receive the message “connection to the mail server can not be established”

Please check whether an antivirus software or a personal firewall block the access to port 25. Most anti-virus programs do this today by default, since many viruses today are doing nothing else than to send emails. Most support requests refer to products from Symantec (Norton Anti-Virus) and McAfee, both of which by default port 25 blocking.

When sending mail I get an error message for each email “Error 5xx (we do not relay)” or “authentication failed” or comparable

Such error messages don’t come from the software. BulkMailer shows the exact response from the mail server.

It is likely to SMTP authentication. Most mail servers now require a login. Select Extras->Options->Connection
(x) Smtp server requires authentication
and enter your user name and password to the mailbox specified by the email sender address.

I have an Excel table opened as “external data source”. How can I close it again?

Simply open a different data source or a BulkMailer address database. BulkMailer tries to reopen the last opened data source when the program starts. Select Menu File->Open BulkMailer Address Database to open a BulkMailer address database. Please also read the chapter on internal / external database in the BulkMailer online help.

How can I access a MySQL database?

Download and install the MyODBC driver from www.mysql.org. In the Windows Control Panel->Administrative select Data Sources (ODBC) and create a system DSN. Enter the DSN a meaningful name and test the connection. In BulkMailer choose File->Open External Datasource-> Other Databases …, chose the OLEdb Provider for ODBC Drivers and select your DSN.

How can I automatically insert the current date in the message?

BulkMailer supports a scripting language (VBScript), which is executed in the step generate mailing. In this way, you can not just insert a recent date, but personalize the email depending on database fields or calculations. Examples and documentation can be found in the BulkMailer Help

How can I let the recipients automatically unsubscribe (Opt-Out) from my newsletter?

This functionality can be found in the feedback module, which is part of BulkMailer. Choose Extras->Feedback-module. The feedback module allows an opt-out (automatically unsubscribe the recipient) and offers an automatic bounce detection. For more information, see the Feedback module Help.

We have licensed BulkMailer 3 years ago, now we need a further activation of a new sender address. What to do?

The activation of additional addresses is always free of charge as part of your license. Just send an email to info@kroll-software.ch. Or use our contact form. Please refer an unlocked address or your PIN and the desired new addresses.

How powerful is BulkMailer, how many mails can be sent?

BulkMailer was successfully tested with 1 million emails. In practice, this value is rather limited by the number of mails that your mail server can send in a reasonable time.

I have inserted database fields, but these are not replaced by the contents of the database.

Check that the fields are entered just as in your currently open data source available. (A list of the Database Fields is shon in the tab “message”). In the step generate mailing do not choose the option BCC. When using the BCC option, database fields are not replaced, as each email goes to multiple recipients. Use the BCC option only in exceptional cases. With HTML-mails, check the database field in square brackets in the HTML source. If only the field name without the brackets were formatted (eg bold), the field can not be found and replaced. Always format the entire expression including the brackets.

I copied a text from MS-Word into BulkMailer. The email looks different and there are problems when editing.

MS Word creates a HTML that is very inappropriate for further processing and for sending by email. Such problems occur not only in conjunction with BulkMailer. Better use a real HTML editor. If you absolutely want to use MS Word to create HTML, you should save the Word document as filtered HTML. Import this file into BulkMailer with menu Email->Load website from file.

I have created an email in MS Word and copied/pasted it into BulkMailer. The images are not displayed.

The images can not be transferred by Copy & Paste. Save the Word document instead as Filtered HTML and load this file via the menu Email->Load website from file … . Some Office documents can contain images as VML (Vector Markup Language). VML has not been standardized and will not be displayed at many recipients. Therefore BulkMailer does not support VML graphics. You can see VML in HTML source code to the tags <v:shape …>

How can I best create an attractive Newsletter? The functions that BulkMailer offers are not enough to me.

Formatted emails consist of HTML code. Therefore, the creation of formatted (HTML) emails is the same as the creation of web pages. If you do not have overly high expectations, the built-in editor of BulkMailer should be good to create your emails. This editor offers all the features that are typical to mail clients. For creating professional appealing newsletters you can use a HTML editor of your choice, eg Dreamweaver or MS FrontPage. Load the resulting HTML file via the menu item Email->Load website from file or Email->Load website from URL. To create a beautiful newsletter possibly is a task for your web designer.

Can the recipient see to whom else the email was sent?

This question is also often asked in conjunction with the BCC option. No, no matter what you do with the program, the recipients can not see to whom else the mail was sent. You should normally not use the BCC option (in step generate mailing).

My question is not answered here.

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