php mailing list?

[westconn1]

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

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

[kows]

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.

[westconn1]

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