Email Policy – Texas Peach Web Hosting
Limits
There is a 500 outgoing email hourly limit per domain. This
limit is also applied towards Mailman. If you send over this amount in any
hour, most of the e-mails will bounce back with an undeliverable error. If this
occurs, it will then take some time for your account to be able to send again
so we recommend waiting at least 1 hour after this issue occurs to begin
sending email again.
Many of our servers have a limit of 30 POP3/IMAP checks per
hour per each user’s connecting IP address. If you go over this you’re likely
to get a wrong password error message or an error stating “login
incorrect”. If this occurs, please wait an hour and it will automatically
unblock you. To prevent this from happening again, please make sure to disable
auto checking or at least set it to something higher such as once every 10
minutes.
Any mailing list larger than 5,000 addresses will require a
dedicated server or VPS hosting solution from us.
Note: Dividing one large list
into smaller lists to get below this limit is not allowed.
There is also a limit to the number of Mailman mailing lists
permitted as follows (NOTE: This does not apply to other mailing list programs
such as PHPList. This only applies to Mailman.)
Mailing Lists Rules
1. Any time you’re
sending a message no matter how large your e-mail list is you must throttle it.
We recommend you throttle it to at the very least sending 1 email every 8
seconds. (Sending 1 every 8 seconds would send 450 emails within 1 hour,
keeping you below the 500 outgoing email limit.) If the mailing list software
you’re using does not allow you to throttle you must switch to an application
or script that will. We recommend PHPList, which can be found in your CPanel
under Fantastico.
IMPORTANT:
If you do not throttle and you try sending 500 emails, the
server will try sending all 500 in 1 second which is not possible on our shared
servers. This will cause a very high load on the server and the entire server
will be sluggish, potentially affecting your sites and service, until this
sending process is completed. It is our job to keep the server up and running
without being sluggish or experiencing issues. Anyone who causes the server’s
load to go high will be suspended and the process will be terminated. If you
choose not to throttle, you will most likely be suspended for crashing the server.
2. Any mailing list over 900 email addresses is only allowed
to be sent to during off-peak times to prevent high server loads. Off peak
times qualify as all day Saturday and Sunday, and 1AM – 8AM Eastern Standard
Time, Monday through Friday.
3. The list must be a Double Opt-In list. This means a user
has subscribed for a newsletter or other email marketing messages by explicitly
requesting it and confirming the email address to be their own. Confirmation is
usually done by responding to a notification/confirmation email sent to the
email address the end user specified. The double opt-in method eliminates the
chance of abuse where somebody submits someone else’s email address without
their knowledge and against their will. You will not be permitted to mail any
mailing list that you were given or purchased. In doing so, this will also be
considered spamming and may result in termination of the offending account.
Email Scripts must be able to handle and document all
information from a double opt-in list. This includes processing opt-outs (via
web or email) and list removal on bounce backs. All opt-outs or bounce back
removals must be handled in a timely manner, and outbound mail must be
throttled on shared packages to a maximum of five hundred (500) emails per
hour. If your account is found to be using a script that does not meet these
requirements, HostGator reserves the right to suspend, terminate, or deactivate
your script or account.
4. Any unsolicited e-mail being sent will result in
suspension or termination of the offending account. We take a zero tolerance
stance against sending of unsolicited e-mail and other forms of spam.
5. Any mailing list MUST comply with all guidelines set
forth by the United States government. These can be found at:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm.
6. No direct SMTP mailers are allowed. An example of this would
be a Darkmailer or The Bat! Any mail should be sent through the local mail
server/MTA for further delivery by the server and not done directly by scripts.