About Mass Mailing Again ...

[Brangwyn]

In theory H-Sphere will in future be able to fully support "dedicated" (as far as I know it was planned for after VPS, and I think a few smart people have found a way to get it to work with the current versions of H-Sphere) it could be used to setup a cluster where each reseller could access say use of a shared mail/database/dns (or chose to run them on their dedicated server) yet have their own dedicated private label 'machine(s)' in the cluster, this would be quite a nice way of doing things, basically we would purchase a cluster machine from Brad but know that its basically dedicated to just our customers yet still have the benefits of H-Sphere in a shared kinda way.

This would allow resellers to grow and stay with Vortech (something I'm sure Vortech would prefer) rather than Resellers basically growing too big and then having to go down the true dedicated or co-location route.

Something for Brad to chew on anyway

[Vixen]

Originally posted by Scroller
rackshack is doing linux boxes only, i'm actually thinking of getting window boxes so that we can use it for other applications as well. so now waiting for Michael (rapidcolo) to give me an cost estimate. not sure if Vortech is doing dedicated anymore though?

We no longer offer dedicated boxes. We will be offering custom built boxes that can be colocated with us.

[Vixen]

Originally posted by jmbeach


I too wish there was a cost effective way for Vortech to do dedicated, as I would be one in line to get a good Windows machine, but alas not all is perfect in Wonderland.

Dedicateds are not cost effective for us any longer because we continually seem to acquire people who (1) refuse to pay for their server in the middle of their contract or (2) want to break their contract in the middle. This becomes a problem when we have these managed machines that we have dedicated to these customers that no longer want to pay and then the box basically becomes an oversized paperweight until we need it. Not to mention, people break the boxes and expect us to fix them free of charge. I could go on and on with the list of reasons we decided to discontinue this service and go strictly with the custom built servers that we sell out right and can be coloed with us if the buyer wishes.

[Scroller]

Originally posted by Brangwyn
This would allow resellers to grow and stay with Vortech (something I'm sure Vortech would prefer) rather than Resellers basically growing too big and then having to go down the true dedicated or co-location route.

My thoughts exactly ... I'm just really "lazy" having to choose another provider since I already know that Vortech works for me. No point taking all the risk to try another vendor ... Vixen, when will the rapid colo solution be available?

[antic]

Just came across this thread by accident. I have already written a comprehensive ASP application which is mainly for sending out surveys and collecting response information. It could be used to just do simple mailouts as well, as you're able to customise the emails pretty comprehensively with HMTL.

If anyone wants a demo I can set it up on a subdomain of my account. One of my users, the West Australian Institute of Management use it to send out emails and surveys to around 8K of their clients, and it works very well.

All the survey creation is done with the application - you can create any numebr of questions and format them (each survey has a style sheet you can customise and you can insert HTML at the top, bottom and in between questions). Certain styles perform special question formatting functions. You can create questions that are multiple choice (checkbox, radio button or dropdown) or text (text line or text-area), specify available options, etc.

You can also create new surveys based on previous ones as templates.

Perhaps I can set it up for multiple users and allow any of you guys to use it for your purposes for a small fee or something.

Either that or I sell the source to Matrix in return for free hosting? The possibilities are endless.

Depending on how Matrix want to restrict mail activity, I can build in a recipient limit per survey quite easily.

Let me know if anyone wants a demo!

[Scroller]

hi antic ...

yes ... yes ... a demo will be good. We're always looking for good mailing application which can manage load and provide good customisability.

[antic]

Hi Scroller, no probs at all. I'll create a new thread when I have it up, to get people's requests for demo accounts, and their comments. Probably have it ready by Monday.

I'll PM you with your own demo login and password then.

Looking forward to see what people think of it!

[Scroller]

Great! Looking forward to it ... if it works wells I'm sure I can get my clients to pay for it.