Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I pay to send mail through your service when I can send it for free through _______? - Maybe you shouldn't. This service is not for everyone. Currently, no other service emphasizes protecting your name from cross user forgery and ensuring positive use of email authentication technologies. Controlledmail.com has technical limits in place to prevent anyone else from sending mail from your domain. You can safely send mail through Controlled Mail and be confident that no one else will. In addition, because we are a small service and do not support bulk mailing of any kind through our servers, we expect to do a better job of staying off of blocklists and getting mail delivered.
Why should I care about cross-user forgery? - Perhaps you don't, but domain based blocklists are being increasingly deployed. Large mail receivers use internal reputation systems that look at both IP address and names in good and bad e-mail. It is in your interest to not give others a chance to send mail in your name.
How reliable is the service? It's hard to say exactly. We have multiple servers connected to the internet through multiple providers. Our goal is to provide a thoroughly reliable service. Since the beta test period ended, we have always had at least one mail server reachable and available to our customers.
What limits do you place on sending mail? - Standard accounts are limited to 2500 recipients per 24 hour period. That would be 50 messages with 50 recipients or 100 messages with 25. The goal of the limits is to ensure a controlledmail.com account is not cost effective for a spammer. Advanced accounts with a higher limits are also available. Messages may be no larger than 10 megabytes.
How much does the service cost? The standard account is 5$ per month. It is payable in advance for a minimum 12 month period. Payments can be via Paypal account, credit card, or via check. If you have specialized, non-bulk, requirements, contact us.
What information do you use/retain from my messages? Source IP address, Mail From address, and destination addressees are logged. Virus scanning is the only content inspection performed.
How do you control access? Access is controlled two ways: First, by SMTP Auth (SASL) - SASL users are restricted to only use their authorized names - and second, for those with static IP addresses, by IP address.
Won't spammers just buy a throw-away account? It's unlikely. First, given the current pricing structure, they could only reach 15,000 addresses per dollar. While that sounds cheap, for spammers, it's incredibly expensive. Additionally, Controlled Mail investigates (using only publicly available information) potential customers to avoid questionable organizations. Finally, since we ask for payment a year at a time, the incentive for spammer to invest in this service is even lower.
What if I'm not satisfied with the service? As long as you haven't violated the terms of service, you will be given a pro-rated refund should you decide to cancel. So far, no one has actually asked us to do this.
How does customer service work? Customer service is via e-mail. Routine support questions are answered largely during normal east-coast US business hours. Urgent support issues are dealt with on a 24 hour basis.
What other services do you offer? Included with your account is a basic level of assistance in dealing with SPF records and other e-mail deliverability issues. For complex cases we also offer consulting services.
The web site, um, isn't very good? Yes. We're an e-mail service, not a web service. E-mail issues are where we focus are attention and skills.
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