Computer Software

Backup your Mini DV tapes to your Hard Drive

Sep 10, 2011 by Author

If you ever need to backup your Mini DV tapes to your hard drive and you don't want to loose any quality, there is a free program that will do the trick.  In my case I needed to backup all my mini DV tapes because I was selling my Sony HDR-HC1 HD camcorder, and would no longer have a device that could read the tapes. 

Trick to getting past Gmail Spam Filters

Aug 11, 2011 by Author

After building a CRM system for a company, we noticed that some of our marketing emails were hitting the Gmail's Spam folder.  A little Trial and Error revealed some interesting facts about how Google's Spam Filter works.

What ports to open for Vicidial Vicibox Asterisk

May 13, 2011 by Author

For those of you who are setting up your own Asterisk based dialer using one of the many variants such as Vicidial, Vicibox, Vicidialnow, or GoAutoDial, you might have found that one of the most painful parts of setting it up is knowing what settings will make it work.  Specifically what ports do you forward from your router, and what special settings do you need to set in your sip.conf file.  After trial and error I have discovered the settings that work. 

ISP Feedback Loop list

Sep 22, 2010 by Author

If you run a mail server, and do any kind of bulk emails, you need to sign up with the feedback loops to ensure you keep your mail list clean, and your IP reputation in good standing.  I have put together a complete list of all known feedback loops.  I also include some background information on FBLs and return path who manages most of them.

Thunderbird not saving sent mail

Jul 12, 2010 by Author

If you find yourself in a situation where thunderbird is no longer saving your sent emails in the Sent folder, then I might have a solution.  In my case all emails from July 4th 2010 on were not showing.  That and anytime I clicked on my Sent folder it would take a very long time to load.  If any of these symptoms sound like your problem, then my solution should work.  Keep in mind by the time I got to this solution I had already gone through and deleted my .msf files, ran compact folders, and even created a new profile.  None of these solved the problem.  In short the problem was a bad email in my sent folder. But it also turns out there is a 4GB limit on folder sizes in thunderbird

Should I become sender score verified

Apr 8, 2010 by Author

After months of dealing with low open rates with one of my biggest client's email lists, I have finally gotten to the point where I am willing to join return path's sender score verified program which is a paid whitelist to ensure delivery into the inbox. I will be documenting my experiences here for good or bad.  Thus far the program is looking very promising

How to get into Yahoo Inbox with your bulk emails

Feb 21, 2010 by Author

Yahoo runs one of the strictest Anti Spam setups of all the Free mail Servers.  If you send any kind of bulk emails then you likely haven't had much success getting into the inbox of yahoo.  Your Emails are either bounced with a deferred message like this Reason: Remote host said: 421 4.7.0 TS01 Messages from 69.80.230.7 temporarily deferred due to user complaints - 4.16.55.1. or they end up in the spam folder.  After switching IPs of my mail server I had the opportunity to validate many of my theories on how Yahoo's AntiSpam technology works.

What sender score and IP reputation is really worth to your mail server

Feb 19, 2010 by Author

Most webmasters and server admins are relatively clueless as to what makes email really run.  Recently I was forced to migrate all my websites to new IPs.  I knew I was going to take a hit for this but I didn't realize how much.  This whole experience have given me a new perspective on how to get into yahoo's inbox with your bulk emails and newsletters.

ATT and Verizon DNSBL Problems.

Feb 13, 2010 by Author

Verizon and AT&T yesterday started bounced emails from my server.  This was very unexpected, as non of my websites do any kind of spam.  A few of them do send a newsletter but this is to a double Opt in Maillist.  Everyone getting the newsletter signed up for it.  So in this blog I will chronicle my journey to get this resolved with both ISPs.  If this turns out good, then fine. If it turns out bad, then at least I will have documented it for the rest of the world.

How to increase your open rates for your bulk emails

Nov 14, 2009 by Author

If you are are like me you have a strong belief that if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.  Running a Mail Server that sends any kind of bulk emails brings many issues that noobie Server Admins don't have a clue about.  I found there wasn't much information about how to properly run a mail server so I thought I would write a complete blog on the issue.  So if you want to greatly increase your open rates, read this