NOOB Q about gateways and mass mailings

[Zen216]

Right now we have Exchange 2003 with a SMTP connector to another server running IIS that is the email gateway. It also runs a program that filters/scans for spam.

We send out some mass mailings (company newsletters)..
It used to run fine, when we sent out 10 to 20k...

The last one we sent out had over 100k addresses..
Well the gateway got bogged down, (ran out of room) that caused the exchange to get bogged down, and no company e-mail was sent..

Now, my idea was to setup a 2nd connector direct to the SMTP relay server of our ISP, and restrict it so ony the newsletter mailbox could use it. Basically bypassing the spam filter...

Is this feasable, safe.. etc.
Would sending that many messages through the exchange server cause it to slow down or lock up?

besides possibly being flagged for a spam sender,, is there any other issues with doing that?

the current admin said we cannot send out any mail except through our gateway, and that if we used exchange to send directly it would cause the company to not be able to use any e-mail.. I don't believe that at all, so I am asking for the opinion of the experts out there..
Please, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Have a great day.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Constant Contact (google it) is what I have all my clients start using instead of sending mail (marketing and newsletters) out of their own server. Even if you start sending out on an alternate IP, that one will get blacklisted and you also fill your disk with connection logs and queues.

I would believe your admin if I were you. I've tried to work around this with different clients for years, and Constant Contact has been a solution everyone is happy with. Servers were always getting blacklisted and smarthosts were always blocking us. You don't want your marketing and your legit mail going out on the same IP, and if you separate them, you have to get a fresh IP for marketing every few weeks....

Dave Shackelford
Shackelford Consulting

 

[Zen216]

Thank you,, I will check that out..