php mailing list?

i started doing a script to send emails with attachments to a mailing list in php, to move from client based emailing in VB, finally managed to send the attachments, but then i stumbled upon

Quote:

---

Note: It is worth noting that the mail() function is not suitable for larger volumes of email in a loop. This function opens and closes an SMTP socket for each email, which is not very efficient.
For the sending of large amounts of email, see the » PEAR::Mail, and » PEAR::Mail_Queue packages.

---

here http://au.php.net/function.mail

the mailing can be up to 800 names (opt in only), with attachment (3.5Mb) and inserted image /s in personalised html message
although opening and closing the socket each time for emails of that size may be irrelevant anyway
any comments, suggestions or alternatives would be welcome

I'm not really sure what your question is (the documentation already recommended that you use the PEAR mail package for this?).. but, if you're sending 800 emails using mail() in a loop, it's going to produce quite the server load. It may not be a huge deal, but being efficient is always helpful for future expansion.

In any case, you could easily switch to using the PEAR mail package linked from the documentation.

thnx, i looked at the pear package, but did not understand all, i also don't have access to change /install programs on the server, both servers i need to use already have php available, so i can use that to do whatever, if pear has to be installed, i would have to check with the server owner to find if they would allow /install

i guess the question is is, whether pear is the best option, or despite the documentation, just to use php anyway

i do have to try to get them to use much smaller attachments, but that is not within my control