Internal Server Error - Suggestions?

I've just used Universal Mail to send out an email to 780 recipients but was unfortunately met with an Internal Server Error message after about 2 minutes of the script running.

I had tested the script with 5 recipients previously which had worked fine, which suggests to me that there's nothing wrong with what I've done, but that there might be a couple of restrictions on what the server can do.

Any suggestions? Sending an email to 5 people took a couple of seconds, which means 780 people might take around 156 seconds or 2.5 minutes.

What adjustments can I make to the server to fix this?

It sounds like a server script timeout. If you admin the server, you can increase the timeout settings. Otherwise, you can either request this of your webhost, or attempt an override in your code on the email page. What server model are you using?

WA UE was never intended to be used as a large volume mailer. There are numerous potential issues on the server side that can occur that WA would have zero ability to deal with.

In the effort to combat SPAM, server admins typically throttle or limit the amount of email that can be blasted out from a domain at any one moment, in addition they may have a threshold number... Lets say 300 messages just as an example, at which point when that number is reached the server blocks everything else from going outward. Resulting in lets say a server timeout.

WA UE is awesome for sending out small to moderate amounts of messages smoothly and easily, but for large volume (>100+) addresses at once, you'll probably encounter server settings that will restrict your activities.

It doesn't really suggest that it can't be used as that though, lon.winters301855. That and there's no definitive guide as to what is considered large volume anyway. There's been many suggestions by WA that it can be used to send out large amounts of emails, so if it can be set up to send 100 emails it can be set up to send 800. What you're talking about are restrictions imposed by the server and not a limitation of UE.

I've approached the people running the server to see what they have to say about it. Will report back then.

The restriction isn't so much a Universal Email one, it is a restriction on the server end.

there are a number of factors, most notable the Number Of Concurrent connections the email server can handle. and the time for a script to time out.


The email server will need to be able to handle a connection for each recipient. If you are mailing to 800 people, it will need to allow over 800 concurrent connections. Probably more like 850 or 900, there will be others using the SMTP server as well.

To send to that many people, the script will likely run for a while, the Script timeout setting will need to increased to account for that.