> Is there anyone else out there using Pmail's mailmerge feature to send very large mailings?

I've tested this with a database of over 30K names & addresses without problems using WinXP SP3.  I'm sending via the Mercury/32 queue using a UDG rather than the built-in mailer.  I suspect if you are having a problem with Vista and Win7 there is some OS limitation that is causing your problem.

I run a genealogy website and was happily using Pegasus 4.41 on my XP computer to send newsletters to a large mailing list. However, since I upgraded to a quad-core PC with Vista Home Premium I've found that I can't send more than 1750-1800 at a time without the program hanging. Even if I send a safe number, say 1700, I have to close Pegasus and restart before I send the next batch, otherwise it drops out when the total emails sent reach 1750-1800.

These emails are around 40k each, but as I've now got 3gb of RAM vs only 1gb before, I can't see that it can be a memory issue. I'm running a different virus checker (Bullguard vs AVG), but I don't think that is anything to do with the problem.

Sadly my XP machine has died after a prolonged and painful illness so I don't have that as a fallback. I have temporarily borrowed my wife's sub notebook which has XP and seems to be doing the job just fine (2500 emails and counting), but it isn't very convenient for either of us. Any suggestions how I can get my Vista set-up mail merging properly?

[quote user="Peter Calver"]

I run a genealogy website and was happily using Pegasus 4.41 on my XP computer to send newsletters to a large mailing list. However, since I upgraded to a quad-core PC with Vista Home Premium I've found that I can't send more than 1750-1800 at a time without the program hanging. Even if I send a safe number, say 1700, I have to close Pegasus and restart before I send the next batch, otherwise it drops out when the total emails sent reach 1750-1800.

Could be a lot of things.  Changes at the ISP, too low a timeout setting, Vista,  a-v sofrtware.

These emails are around 40k each, but as I've now got 3gb of RAM vs only 1gb before, I can't see that it can be a memory issue. I'm running a different virus checker (Bullguard vs AVG), but I don't think that is anything to do with the problem.

WinXP can easily get along with 1 GByte memory, the 3 GBytes in Vista probably equates to the same or less. But I really suspect the change in the a-v software.  Turn it off and check it out. It yuo are checking the outbound mail for a virus then you have more problems than just sending mail.  [:)] 

Sadly my XP machine has died after a prolonged and painful illness so I don't have that as a fallback. I have temporarily borrowed my wife's sub notebook which has XP and seems to be doing the job just fine (2500 emails and counting), but it isn't very convenient for either of us. Any suggestions how I can get my Vista set-up mail merging properly?

Upgrade it to WinXP? [;)]

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]

Could be a lot of things.  Changes at the ISP, too low a timeout setting, Vista,  a-v sofrtware.

These emails are around 40k each, but as I've now got 3gb of RAM vs only 1gb before, I can't see that it can be a memory issue. I'm running a different virus checker (Bullguard vs AVG), but I don't think that is anything to do with the problem.

WinXP can easily get along with 1 GByte memory, the 3 GBytes in Vista probably equates to the same or less. But I really suspect the change in the a-v software.  Turn it off and check it out. It yuo are checking the outbound mail for a virus then you have more problems than just sending mail.  [:)] 

Thomas, thanks for your insights.

I don't think changes at the ISP are an issue since if I use an XP-based PC it all works fine as before (I sent a batch of nearly 9000 yesterday, vs the 1700-1800 max I can get from Vista). As for the anti-virus program, disabling the checking of outgoing emails doesn't make any difference. The time-out is set to 60 seconds on my Vista PC, vs only 15 on the XP notebook I'm using temporarily, so I can't see that time-outs are an issue either.

I don't know how many Pegasus users there are who use the mail merge facility as extensively as I do, but I'd certainly like to find out if anyone else has had problems after switching to Vista.

You might try to install Michael's crashdump extension, maybe this gives any insights where the problem occurs. Can be found here: http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/12301.aspx

Sven

I don't think changes at the ISP are an issue since if I use an

XP-based PC it all works fine as before (I sent a batch of nearly 9000

yesterday, vs the 1700-1800 max I can get from Vista). As for the

anti-virus program, disabling the checking of outgoing emails doesn't

make any difference. The time-out is set to 60 seconds on my Vista PC,

vs only 15 on the XP notebook I'm using temporarily, so I can't see

that time-outs are an issue either.

Apples and oranges since Vista and WinXP are different systems and are running on different hardware.  I still would increase the SMTP timeout to something like 300 seconds on the Vista machine to see what happens. Could also be some sort of packet fragmentation problem with the internal network interface card as well.  The POP3/SMTP transmissions may fail if the MTU packet size is so large that a packet is fragmented.  In many cases the receiving system router blocks the receiving servers "packets fragmented" response to the sending system using "MTU Discovery".  These oversize packets are not accepted and so are resent.  This results in a timeout, generally at the end of the message transmission but it can be anywhere in the process.  You need to reduce the MTU size. Windows defaults to a 1500 MTU and many routers and DSL connections need 1492.  You might simply want to turn off the MTU Discovery operation.

You might want to get a copy of SG TCP Optimizer that I find quite handy.  http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php  This little utility will allow you to test your MTU for maximum size without fragmentation against specific servers.  If will also make it easy to adjust the MTU. 

And finally, does this computer, by chance, happen to have an NVidia NForce 4 chipset on the motherboard?  If so, many other have had this exact problem, and it turned out to be an optimization setting for the built in NIC which caused the problems with packet fragmentation. Disabling the advanced optimization capability called "checksum offload" made all the problems of sending SMTP mail via WinPMail disappear.

I don't know how many Pegasus users there are who use the mail merge

facility as extensively as I do, but I'd certainly like to find out if

anyone else has had problems after switching to Vista.

[quote user="Thomas R. Stephenson"]

Apples and oranges since Vista and WinXP are different systems and are running on different hardware.  I still would increase the SMTP timeout to something like 300 seconds on the Vista machine to see what happens. Could also be some sort of packet fragmentation problem with the internal network interface card as well.  The POP3/SMTP transmissions may fail if the MTU packet size is so large that a packet is fragmented.  In many cases the receiving system router blocks the receiving servers "packets fragmented" response to the sending system using "MTU Discovery".  These oversize packets are not accepted and so are resent.  This results in a timeout, generally at the end of the message transmission but it can be anywhere in the process.  You need to reduce the MTU size. Windows defaults to a 1500 MTU and many routers and DSL connections need 1492.  You might simply want to turn off the MTU Discovery operation.

You might want to get a copy of SG TCP Optimizer that I find quite handy.  http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php  This little utility will allow you to test your MTU for maximum size without fragmentation against specific servers.  If will also make it easy to adjust the MTU. 

And finally, does this computer, by chance, happen to have an NVidia NForce 4 chipset on the motherboard?  If so, many other have had this exact problem, and it turned out to be an optimization setting for the built in NIC which caused the problems with packet fragmentation. Disabling the advanced optimization capability called "checksum offload" made all the problems of sending SMTP mail via WinPMail disappear.

I don't know how many Pegasus users there are who use the mail merge

facility as extensively as I do, but I'd certainly like to find out if

anyone else has had problems after switching to Vista.

Most people do not send 9000 mail merge messages but with Vista any problem is possible.  That's why most people are sticking with WinXP on their new systems hoping that MS may just get it right with Windows 7 (actually should be Vista SP3).   Just bought a brand new Dell laptop with WinXP Pro installed.  [:)]
[/quote]

Thanks for your further suggestions. I don't think I have the NForce 4 problem - this was once an issue with my previous PC, but that was nearly 4 years older. I didn't run the TCP Optimizer because - rightly or wrongly - my A-V package detected a Trojan when I downloaded it.

However I don't this is the issue. I don't have a general problem sending mail via Pegasus on my Vista PC - the problem has only occurred when the cumulative number of messages sent in a Pegasus session has reached 1700-180. If I send 1500 emails then send another batch without closing down Pegasus it will bomb out after 200-300. But if I close down Pegasus the count resets, and I can send another 1700 even though I haven't rebooted the computer or restarted Windows.

If I was only sending 9000 emails it wouldn't be a problem, but I have to send around 50000, and doing that in batches of 1700 is very tedious. Under XP I could send out 12-15000 emails overnight - with my Vista PC that isn't an option. I'll continue using my wife's XP notebook for now....

I just thought I'd check in with the latest on the mail merge issue. Having upgraded my Vista PC to Windows 7 the problem is still the same, and I also get the same problem on my wife's brand new laptop which is also Vista upgaraded to Windows 7 - but otherwise very different hardware.

The problem always occurs after around 1750 emails have been sent after firing up Pegasus, irrespective of the size of the emails. As I mentioned a year ago, closing down Pegasus and restarting the program gives it a new lease of life - I can then send another 1750 or so before the problem reoccurs.

Switching users (yes, I'm still using 4.41 because 4.51 didn't work for me, at least not under Vista) doesn't have any effect - it is necessary to exit the program completely.

I'm still able to send large mailings using a Netbook running XP SP3, although this too seems to fall over after around 32000 emails have been sent. I generally send just over 50,000 emails at a time.

Is there anyone else out there using Pmail's mailmerge feature to send very large mailings?