Anything that is done by means of technology is not free from problems. It is also true about emailing that is based on interment technology. Spamming is a common problem or trouble that is closely associated with emailing. That is why SMTP service is an important consideration to make emailing a safe method of communication.

Nowadays, many paid mail services, even free services like Yahoo, Hotmail etc, don't accept mails from all local SMTP servers. This is mainly because of spam messages. In the past, local servers were used by spammers to send spam mails. Therefore, as a measure of protection from spammers, both the paid and free mail service providers accept the messages that are from public SMTP mail servers.

Public SMTP servers are the servers who have their addresses registered as public SMTP relays. The way these servers work is complex a little more than others. If you use a local service to send out a message via Hotmail, what can be expected is that the message goes directly into the "spam" folder. Only external SMTP service can keep your message from the "spam folder".

Direct mail send is not possible at all, if your network service provider blocks any of the ports 25 and 53, as AOL does. These drawbacks are commonly found to be with any local SMTP mail server. It is common to Windows' built-in SMTP server and third party servers as well. Installing a local SMTP server on your PC does not help by any means. These reasons make it necessary to choose any of external SMTP servers. You are left only with this option, if your provider blocks port 25.

you can use external SMTP service either with Direct Send or alone. Some external mail servers can be used in a mixed configuration. You can use one of the options as a primary method and another as a backup method in case of errors. All network providers provide Internet connection as well as free SMTP mail service as personal email clients like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc. need one to send out messages as they lack direct delivery features.

The only problem is that the pace of sending mails depends on the speed of the SMTP server. The mediocre SMTP service that usually comes free with the Internet connection is suitable for small email traffic. You may face problems, if you use it for bulk email marketing. Its usage has limits and is not good for serious email marketing projects. Possible problems are the following -

• The server may refuse to accept message when the volume exceeds the definite limit per hour or per day

• The server may not allow multiple connections at the same time

• The SMTP mail server may use too strict antispam filter to filter incoming messages. That leads to the rejection of even legitimate messages at times.

The best and safest strategy is to use external SMTP service. Choose the service in keeping with your needs and requirements like efficient, fast emailing for online marketing.