What is SMTP Relay?
SMTP Relay lets you send email messages through your email account using your existing email service. For example, you can continue to use Microsoft Outlook to compose, receive, and send email messages, but the actual email messages are processed through our SMTP relaying services. This lets you bypass ISP restrictions on your outbound email messages and allows you to use your professional looking "sales@coolexample.com" email address rather than a general “sales@ispname” address.
Our SMTP relay service is provided to you as part of your email account. As such, you must set up the service when you configure your email account settings. Your email account includes 250 SMTP relays per mailbox per day. This limit resets every twenty four hours. If you need more than 250 relays for your mailbox, you can purchase additional relay packs (in packs of 50). You can use a maximum of 500 SMTP relays per day, per email account. If you want to use more than 500 relays per day, you can distribute SMTP relays across multiple email accounts.
NOTE: With Web-Based Email and SMTP, you are restricted to 100 email addresses (To, Cc, and Bcc) per email message, regardless of the number of SMTP relays you have per day. For more information, see Email Account Limitations.
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Requesting a SMTP Relay Limit Increase
In order to request an SMTP relay limit increase for your virtual dedicated or dedicated server, you will need to submit a trouble ticket. To increase this limit, we need to obtain additional information. There are two options for requesting a SMTP relay increase: Business use and Mass Mailings. Please create a Trouble Ticket from within your Hosting Control Center to request one of the following:"
To Request a SMTP Relay Limit Increase for Business Email Usage
- Provide the approximate number of email users you have on the server (the number can include future users).
- Provide the approximate number of relays each email user will send per day. We will increase the limit based on your response: 100 users sending 50 messages per day will require 5,000 relays per day.
- Please read our Anti-Spam Policy and acknowledge the agreement by stating the following, "I have read, understand and will abide by your anti-spam policy."
NOTE: Failure to provide all requested information will result in your request being denied.
To Request a SMTP Relay Limit Increase for Mass Mailings
- Provide a brief explanation about your newsletter or marketing campaign. For example: "Every Monday I send a newsletter to all of my customers."
- Provide the maximum number of relays you will require per day. Please note, unlimited relays will not be granted. If you do not provide a specific amount, we will default to 5,000 per day.
- Provide a sample copy of the email message. The sample may be included in your response or you may post the message to a web page and provide the URL.
NOTE: Newsletters and market campaigns must comply with the CAN-SPAM Act
. - Ensure your newsletter or marketing campaign includes an Opt-out link in the message. If your message does not include an Opt-out link, the increase request will be denied.
- Please read our Anti-Spam Policy and acknowledge the agreement by stating the following, "I have read, understand and will abide by your anti-spam policy."
NOTE: Failure to provide all requested information will result in your request being denied.
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Why should I use SMTP over my regular ISP email account?
If you want to send email messages from your personal email account ("name@coolexample.com" instead of "name@ISPname.com") and you want to control how many email messages you can send every day, you should use SMTP to send your email messages. Otherwise, you are subject to your ISP's restrictions, such as only allowing outbound email messages that come from accounts on their servers and using the email account from your ISP to send messages.
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What If I've Reached the SMTP Limit on my Virtual Dedicated/Dedicated Server?
There is a daily limit of 1,000 outbound emails from your dedicated/virtual dedicated server. There are several other reasons besides "standard email" that can cause you to reach this daily restriction. The following are a few things you can check:
Verify That Your Domain Name is Not Sending Out Bouncebacks
The default Plesk setting is to bounce email sent to non-existent users. This means that if your domain is coolexample.com, and someone sends an email to a non-existent user (ex: johndoe@coolexample.com), it is defaulted to send a message back saying "This user does not exist". If your domain receives a lot of incoming mail to non-existent users, the daily limit can be hit in no time.
The solution is to modify your mail preferences to reject mail sent to non-existent users. To reject mail sent to non-existent users in Plesk:
- From the Plesk control panel click Domains.
- Click Select Domain, then click Mail.
- Click Preferences and then click the Reject radio button, and click OK.
NOTE: You will need to do this for all domains on the server.
