How to limit SMTP delivery to hourly batches

Question

In an effort to keep us from being labeled spammers by major ISPs (in addition to SPF records, privacy policies, CANSPAM compliance and the like) - I wanted to limit the amount of mail we send out an hour.
Is this possible in W2K3 SMTP server? I was looking at outbound connection properties in the SMTP virtual server config screens...It's just not that clear if tinkering with those settings are going to do what I want.

In a nutshell, I'd love mail being sent by this server to queue up and send for example, 5,000 messages every 10 minutes or so.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

What are you suign to send the mail, As far as i know i dont think you can set the sending server, But if you have some code which puts the mail together you could just put the send function on a timer.

5000 email every 10 mins is still going to get you marked as SPAM though after a few days. as thats close to 1 million emails a day.

Answer 2

So, I found out what I wanted - in case others look for it. I'm using the config settings for ASPNET to drop the mail into a different pickup directory on the server (rather than the default Queue directory). Then I can simply use a scheduled task to check the pickup directory every 30 minutes or so and copy N number of messages to the SMTP Queue directory...Where they will be picked up and mailed. The configuration section/settings is:

  <system.net>
    <mailSettings>
        <smtp deliveryMethod="SpecifiedPickupDirectory">
          <specifiedPickupDirectory pickupDirectoryLocation="C:\YOUR_CUSTOM_PICKUP_DIR" />
        </smtp>  
    </mailSettings>
  </system.net>