Why use PostCast Server?
 Table of Contents
PostCast Server completely replaces your ISP's SMTP server. By making
just one change in your e-mail program, you are able to send messages
directly from your computer to the recipient of every message you send.
What must be changed is the address of the SMTP server or the Outgoing
Mail Server, as specified in some e-mail programs.
The main advantages of using PostCast Server are:
- Maximum
flexibility in the sending process
- Increased
privacy of messages
- Faster
message delivery
- No
dependence on the availability of your ISP's server
Maximum flexibility in
the sending process
When sending a message from your
computer with the help of PostCast Server, you will always be able to
see what actually happened with the message ? whether it was sent or not,
and if not, the real reason for the error.
If a message cannot be delivered to its destination, your ISP's SMTP
server and, in many cases, the recipient's server are supposed to send
a notification to the sender informing him/her that the message has not
been sent due to some error. Something like that could happen if, for
instance, the entered e-mail address is not correct.
However, such notifications are optional. When configuring the software,
your ISP can instruct the server not to send such notifications at all,
thus trying to preserve the server performance level. If this option is
disabled, the only way for you to find out whether the message has reached
its destination or not is to obtain the information from the recipient.
When you are sending important messages that simply must be delivered
to a certain e-mail address, this could present a problem.
When sending messages with PostCast Server, everything is in your hands.
The program has a set of options thanks to which you can control things
like:
- Interval
for delivery of messages
- If a message cannot
be sent, the way it will be treated: how
many times the program should attempt to send it, as well as the time
interval after which the program should stop the delivery
- Should the program
notify you that your message
could not be sent
- Should the program
create log files with all the
details regarding the delivery of each message
- You can make a list of bad e-mail addresses to which
messages cannot be delivered. You can use this list to filter your mailing
lists and thus avoid sending messages to those addresses in the future.
Increased privacy of messages
Every message sent through your ISP's server could be read by any person
who has access to their computer. Any administrator or employee or any
busybody can read your messages. If you are sending confidential information,
like your credit card data and the like, this might create a problem.
I do not want to say that it is a regular practice of ISPs to read their
customers' mail. I only want to point out that it is very easy to do that.
The possibility exists, and if you are concerned about the security of
your information, it will not be a bad idea to eliminate it.
Mail server software is usually designed to create log files containing
all the information about every sent message. It is also possible to set
it to make a local copy of every sent message, which can be easily accessed
at a later date.
If you use PostCast Server, your ISP's SMTP server will be excluded
from the exchange. Thus, the number of intermediaries in your e-mail exchange
is lowered and the possibility of someone reading your messages reduced.
Faster message delivery
Once your messages have been sent to your ISP's server, they will not
necessarily be delivered immediately. It all depends on the server's settings.
The server can be set to send messages at specific time intervals. Even
if the server has been set to send messages immediately after downloading
them, in case it is overloaded (too many connected users) it will send
your messages with a certain delay. There is no way you can find out how
the server settings have been defined or when your message was actually
sent.
PostCast Server delivers messages directly from your computer to their
destination. When the program informs you that a message has been sent,
this means that it is already in the recipient's mailbox. At the same
time when PostCast Server informs you that the message has been sent,
the recipient will be able to download the message from his/her mail account
using his/her e-mail program. There are no intermediaries in the sending
process - messages are sent directly.
No dependence on the availability of your
ISP's server
In case the SMTP server of your ISP is not available, or in case of
an error, it will still be possible to send messages using PostCast Server.
Another advantage is that in case you are using Internet accounts with
several ISPs, you need to enter the SMTP server value of the ISP to which
you are currently connected in order to be able to send your messages.
Otherwise, in 99% of the cases, you will get the 'Relaying denied' error
when sending the message.
For instance, if you have three accounts with ISP-1, ISP-2 and ISP-3,
and you decide to connect to ISP-1, you will have something like smtp.ISP1.com
as the SMTP server address in your e-mail program.
A while later you realize that ISP-1 is rather slow and decide to connect
to ISP-2. You will no longer be able to send any messages. Why?
Your e-mail program will keep on trying to send messages over ISP-1,
i.e. over smtp.ISP1.com address. However, ISP-1 is configured to
allow sending messages only to users who are connected to it. Otherwise,
anyone would be able to send messages over it, leaving open the possibility
of misuse in case of sending SPAM. ISP-1 detects your address on the Internet
and establishes that you are not connected to the Internet over it. Then,
it reports the 'Relaying denied' error to your e-mail program.
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