How to use Dada Mail > Sending Options
Change the behavior on how mail is sent using Dada Mail.

Send Email Using SMTP
When checked, mail sending will be done directly through the SMTP server (e.g., mail.yourdomain.org), instead of using the "sendmail" command in the Dada Mail script.

For this, you will need to go into the "SMTP settings" link and configure the SMTP server in the SMTP Settings Options screen, where you will see the following:

SMTP Options
Setting up SMTP sending in Dada Mail is very similar to setting up a mail reader, such as Microsoft's Outlook or Apple's Mail.app for out going mail. Dada Mail needs to know what your SMTP server.

SMTP Server
To find out the name of your SMTP server, refer to the New Account Email you received when you signed up for web hosting with us. It will be something like:

mail.yourdomain.org

Port
The SMTP sort is 25. Only change this if you are told otherwise.

Connection Tries
Dada Mail will try a few times to connect to your SMTP server without giving up. Five times is usually more than enough.

SMTP Authentication
Our SMTP servers require authentication before you can use them. This is to stop anyone that shouldn't use our mail server from using it, such as malicious spammers. There are currently two popular ways to do this, SASL and POP-before-SMTP. Both will work on our servers. Only one is necessary.

SMTP Authentication (SASL)
SASL authentication stands for "Simple Authentication and Security Layer". The username and password are the same as your logon for cPanel. Test it to make sure you've configured this correctly.

POP-before-SMTP Authentication
Pop-before-SMTP authentication works by logging into your POP3 (incoming mail) server. The POP3 server requires its own username/password. The POP3 server is the same as the SMTP server (e.g., mail.yourdomain.org). The username and password are the same as your logon for cPanel.

Alternatively you can use the login information of the List Owner's email address (if it's one of your domain's addresses instead of an outside address such as aol.com). If you check "Set the Sender of SMTP Mailings to the List Administration Address" (see next item below), you must use the POP3 login information for that address (the List Administrator's). For example:

POP3 server: mail.yourdomain.org
POP3 username: admin@yourdomain.org
POP3 password: • • • • • • •

Make sure to test your POP3 login information.

Set the Sender of SMTP Mailings to the List Administration Address
When checked, this option will set the Return-Path header to send replies and bounce notifications to the List Administrator, instead of to the List Owner.

Batch Sending
This is important for lists larger than 200 subscribers. Batch Sending essentially allows you to throttle, or slow down, your mail sending. Too much email being sent at one time will bogging down our mail server,. You are being hosted on a shared server that has limitations on the amount of mail sent at one time, so that our server is not blacklisted as used by spammers.

Batch Sending add a pause between batches of messages. As a general rule of thumb, set batches to a small number of messages sent and a short length of time, rather than a larger number of messages to send between a large amount of time. For example: 100 messages every five minutes is better than sending 1200 messages every hour.

We recommend that you set it to send 100 messages no faster than every 30 seconds.

Receive Batch Confirmations
When checked, emails will be sent to the List Owner announcing when each batch has been sent. If you have a large list, you might now want all the batch confirmations after awhile. But do use this at first, so you see how well your Dada Mail is working (it's like a security blanket... it's not necessary but it will keep you warm and happy).

Receive Finishing Message
We highly recommend this. When checked, an email will be sent to the List Owner announcing that the mailing is complete, what time it started and what time it ended, and what was the last address that received your message.

Next, click the "Advanced" link to go to the Advanced Sending Options, where you will see the following:

Default Precedence of Bulk Mailings
The Precedence header sets the priority of an email message. It's somewhat useless and should only be set to either list or nothing at all.

Default Priority of Bulk Mailings
Like the Preference header, the Priority header is supposed to help set the priority of an email message in your recipients' mailboxes, but in actual use it's basically ignored. Keep this set to normal.

Default Character Set of Mailings
A Character Set is used by computers to understand how different letters, numbers etc. are internally represented. Different languages may need a different character set to have email messages seen correctly. The default in Dada Mail is English (en) iso-8859-1.

Default PlainText/HTML Message Encoding
There are several ways to encode an email message for sending. The default is 8bit and should work fine for you.

Here is a list of the different encodings and what they do:

• 7bit
  Basically, no real encoding is done. However, this label guarantees that no 8-bit characters are present, and that lines do not exceed 1000 characters in length. (This does not limit the length of an email.)
• 8bit
  Basically, no real encoding is done. The message might contain 8-bit characters, but this encoding guarantees that lines do not exceed 1000 characters in length. (This does not limit the length of an email.)
• binary
  No encoding is done at all. Message might contain 8-bit characters, and lines might be longer than 1000 characters long. This is the most liberal and the least likely to get through mail gateways. Use sparingly, or (better yet) not at all.
• base64
  Like "uuencode", but very well-defined. This is how you should send essentially binary information (tar files, GIFs, JPEGs, etc.).
• quoted-printable
  Useful for encoding messages which are textual in nature, yet which contain non-ASCII characters (e.g., Latin-1, Latin-2, or any other 8-bit alphabet).

Send all emails with only the address in the 'To' and 'From' message headers
When checked, messages sent using Dada Mail will only show the email address of the person it is From (your List Owner address) and To (the recipient). Some SMTP servers get confused when 'To:' and 'From:' contain both the name and address ( "John Smith" <john@smith.com> ). With this option, all messages sent will contain only the address ( john@smith.com ). You do not need to set this option, because Dada Mail only contains the email address anyway.

Print list-specific headers in all list emails
When checked, list-specific headers will be written into the email headers of outgoing messages. List-specific headers look like this:

List: examplelist
List-Archive: <http://example.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=archive&l=examplelist>
List-ID: <examplelist.example.com>
List-Owner: <listowner@example.com>
List-Subscribe: <http://example.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=s&l=examplelist>
List-Unsubscribe: <example.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=examplelist>
List-URL: <example.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?l=examplelist>

Basically, they'll add the subscriber information about the mailing list and prove your messages to be legitimate. You should always use these list-specific headers.

A side benefit is that when recipient mail servers bounce back your messages as undeliverable, many of them will include the headers in the return email. You can then simply click the List-Unsubscribe found in the header to quickly and easily remove the invalid recipient address.

Add the Sendmail '-f' flag when sending messages
When checked, a flag will be used in the sendmail command, essentially setting the list administrator in the Return-Path header of the email message that you are sending. This is good to use.

Print the 'Errors-To' header in all list emails
When checked, an Errors-To line is added to the header, with the list administrator as the value. This header is deprecated and shouldn't be used; this header tag used to play the role that the Return-Path header does now.

Print the 'Return-Path header in all list emails
When checked, a Return-Path line is added to the header, with the list administrator as the value. This is mostly used to indicate where a bounced email message should return to. It works in conjunction with the "sendmail -f flag" or when sending via SMTP.

Use VERP
It's best NOT to use this. Often a bounce message refers to a failing address that does not appear on the mailing list. One of your subscribers is forwarding messages to that address. Which subscriber? As the list grows, this question becomes more and more difficult to answer. Variable envelope return paths (VERPs) automatically and reliably identify the subscription address relevant to each bounce message.

VERP will only work when sending via the SMTP server and if you have activated the Return-Path header by setting the '-f' flag (best bet) and/or 'Return-Path' header. Even then, though, it won't always work as it should.

Schedule List Mailings to be sent by a separate process
We provide an easier way of doing this. Leave this unchecked, and use the Scheduled Mailings link under Plugins.

Use the Habeas Warrant Mark
When checked, messages will be sent with the Habeas Warrant Mark headers. The Habeas Warrant Mark is a way to authenticate that a mailing is really from you. However, you must obtain a license to use the Habeas Warrant Mark. Go to http://www.habeas.com.