Frequently Asked Questions

1. What can I do to improve my delivery rate?
2. How can I monitor the success of my email campaign?
3. How can I sign my emails with DKIM?
4. How can I test to see if my ISP is blocking port 25?
5. How do I use the Direct Send feature?
6. How do I specify my "From" email address?
7. How do I include special characters in the "Subject"?
8. How many threads should I use?
9. Why does my email program prompt me for approval when using the MAPI send method?
10. Why would I want to use the MAPI send method?
11. I'm trying to send an HTML message with pictures, but they don't show up in the received emails?
12. What is a MHT file, and how do I create one?
13. Why is the HTML message option disabled?
14. How do I use Excel to create my mailing list?
15. I've lost my license key, can you re-send it to me?

Question:  What can I do to improve my delivery rate?
Answer:  There are quite a few things you can do to make sure your emails actually get delivered.  See our list of tips to get your email delivered.
 

Question:  How can I monitor the success of my email campaign?
Answer:  To track now many of your emails are actually read, and which links from within your email are being clicked on, use the GoTrackNow service.
 

Question:  How can I test to see if my ISP is blocking port 25?
Answer:  Select "Start/Run..." and type in:

telnet

This will start the telnet program and give you a command line prompt.  At the telnet command line type in:

open [mailserver] 25

where [mailserver] is the name of any mail server you want to connect with.  For example:

open mta7.am0.yahoodns.net 25
open mailin-01.mx.aol.com 25

If your port 25 is not being blocked you should get a reply beginning with "220".  ISPs that block your port 25 access will usually allow you to connect to their mail servers, but nobody else's.

If you have an email address, but don't know the mail server, use Network-Tools.com and do a "DNS lookup" for the "MX" record.  There are often multiple MX records for any given domain.  You can use any one, but generally you would start with the one with the lowest priority number.  For example, the MX record for yahoo.com is a.mx.mail.yahoo.com.

If your port 25 is being blocked you won't be able to use the Direct Send feature in AutoMSW.  Instead you will need to use the "SMTP Mail Server" or "MAPI" sending method.  Select the "Change..." button in the "From" section in AutoMSW to choose your sending method.

Even if your ISP is blocking port 25, they will not block it to their own mail servers, so you can use your ISP's SMTP mail server.

If you do not have access to an SMTP mail server, or your ISP provided mail server is too restrictive, you can purchase access to a 3rd party SMTP mail server by searching the web for "SMTP Service".  Many 3rd party SMTP mail services provide access over ports other than 25, so even if your port 25 is being blocked, you can still send emails using their mail server.

Question:  How do I specify my "From" email address?
Answer:  The "From" email address can be entered as just an e-mail address:

username@domain.com

or it can include a "display name" in the format shown here:

"Acme Inc." <username@domain.com>

In the case where you have a display name, the recipient will see your email being from this display name (Acme Inc. in this example).  This makes for a more professional looking email.
 

Question:  How do I include special characters in the "Subject"?
Answer:  To use a subject with non-ASCII characters use the MIME encoded word syntax.  The format is:

=?charset?encoding?encoded text?=

where charset is the name of the character set, encoding is either Q for Q-encoding or B for base64 encoding, and encoded text is the Q-encoded or base64-encoded text.  For example:

=?iso-8859-1?Q?=A1Hola,_se=F1or!?=

is interpreted as "¡Hola, señor!".  For more information see MIME Encoded-Word.
 

Question:  How many threads should I use?
Answer:  This depends on your sending method and internet connection speed.  When using AutoMSW's built-in SMTP server you can use the most threads.  When using your ISP's SMTP server you should probably use fewer to avoid overloading this server.  If you start getting failed emails due to timeouts and lost connections (10060 and 10061 are common error types here), then you should try lowering the number of threads and/or increasing the send and receive timeouts.

If you are using your ISP's SMTP server you may also want to consider sending slower to avoid being accused of sending spam.   To send very slow, you can make use of the pause between emails option (File / Options...).
 

Question:  Why does my email program prompt me for approval when using the MAPI send method?
Answer:  Some email clients will prompt you for approval when another application, such as AutoMSW,  tries to send e-mail using Simple MAPI.  This is a security feature to prevent viruses from sending email on your behalf.

If you are using Outlook Express you can disable this prompt with "Tools / Options... / Security / Warn me when other applications try to send mail as me".

If you are using Outlook there is no option to disable the prompt, but there are 3rd party applications that can be used to eliminate it.  We recommend Quick-Merge.  You may also prefer to use eAnnouncer to send your emails if you are using Outlook.
 

Question:  Why would I want to use the MAPI send method?
Answer:  This method allows you to send from any MAPI compatible email client, such as Outlook, Outlook Express, AOL, Eudora, or Messenger.  AutoMSW will compose the messages, and they will be placed in the Outbox of your email client.  Your email client will handle sending the emails, just as if you had typed them all in manually.  If you want to send with a non-SMTP email account (like a HTTP server) then you can accomplish this with the MAPI send method.
 

Question:  I'm trying to send an HTML message with pictures, but they don't show up in the received emails?
Answer:  Pictures in your HTML message must be referenced to a location available to the recipient of your email.  Place your pictures on a web site, and then reference the images there when composing your HTML.  For example, the image source would be something like:

http://www.automsw.com/email.gif

Instead of:

C:\Pictures\email.gif

Example:  This example is using Microsoft FrontPage, but would be similar in other HTML editing software.  If you don't already have your image(s) on your web server, first upload them using whatever method you prefer (FTP, or publishing with FrontPage).  When composing your message use the menu command "Insert / Picture / From File..." to insert an image.  In the "Filename" field enter in the full URL to the picture you want to insert.  In our example, this would be:

http://www.automsw.com/email.gif

and then click the "Insert" button.  When you save your HTML document you may get a "Save Embedded Files" dialog.  It will list your picture files.  Make sure the "Action" is set to "Don't Save".  If it is not, just choose the "Set Action..." button, and choose the "Don't Save: Don't save this file and leave the reference in the page as is." option.  Once saved, you can verify that your pictures are referenced properly by looking in the HTML view or the picture properties.  The image source should be referenced with the full URL, like:

http://www.automsw.com/email.gif

If all of this sounds too complicated, or you don't have a web server where you can upload your images, you can instead send using a Web Archive (*.MHT) file.  AutoMSW supports sending .MHT files, and these will include all the embedded images.  See our FAQ on MHT files.

Another option is to use eAnnouncer.  eAnnouncer is an Outlook add-in and will send your messages with pictures from within Outlook.
 

Question:  Why is the HTML message option disabled?
Answer:  When sending using the MAPI send method, the HTML message option will be disabled.  Press the "Change..." button in the "From" section of AutoMSW to see what sending method you are using.

When you choose to send with the MAPI method AutoMSW uses "Simple MAPI" to talk to your default email client.  The Simple MAPI protocol only supports text based messages (no HTML).  If you would like to use your email client to send bulk emails instead of AutoMSW, and you're using Outlook, check out eAnnouncer.
 

Question:  How do I use Excel to create my mailing list?
Answer:  Follow these instructions.