If you are trying to send email and you get a message that says "Tarpitting" or "You have been Tarpitted", read the following information very carefully...

Our email servers will only allow for the sending of "x" number of emails per minute. This is server wide rule on all of our email servers. It is not something that we can turn on or off for selected domains. Our email servers are for sending email as a person-to-person
medium, not a broadcast medium.

If you notice a persistent "Tarpitting" problem, the causes and solutions are listed below.

#1 PROBLEM - Your computer has been hacked and the hackers are trying to use your computer as a spamming device to send out lots of emails. This happens all the time and people don't know it's happening. So if a spammer hacks 1,000 computers on an ISP
or hosting company, they can send out millions of spam emails in a very short period of time!

SOLUTION - Get someone to check your computer for viruses and spyware. They may be able to remove the hacks or, most likely, they will have to format your hard drive and then install the OS again. You may lose all data. In addition, you most likely will not be able to use any files from your computer before the OS was re-installed. This is because you could possibly reinfect your computer again!
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#2 PROBLEM - You're trying to send out emails to an email list. You may be tarpitted instantly (most likely sending BCC) or you are tarpitted after sending out a few emails.

1st SOLUTION - Instead of using the mail server of your domain for sending, you may try sending via your ISP mail server. If your ISP does not have any spam protocols in place, then you'll have no problems. Unfortunately for you, many ISPs use the same spam
protocols that we do on our emails servers. They have to do this in order to protect their email servers and clients, just like we have to protect our email servers and clients. The spam protocols we allow on our email servers are quite lenient when compared to most ISPs.

2nd SOLUTION - Use a mass mailing service. We offer the use of our Professional Mass Mailing software to our webhosting clients, for a 1 time fee (approximately $35), but we are very strict on it's use. We abide by all local, state, and federal laws. This means that ALL people receiving email MUST double opt in, via the Mass Mailing software, in order for you to send out email. This logs their approval date, time, their IP, their email address and more. This proves and protects you from being reported to spam databases and legal issues. For more information on our Spam rules, please see our terms page here: http://www.bummerhosting.com/terms.php

3rd SOLUTION - Use another mass mailing service that is not affiliated with Bummer Hosting Solutions. Many of them don't care what you do or how you do it. So you should be able to send as many emails as you like without having to adhere to any local, state or federal laws. The problems with this is that you will be held responsible for lawsuits. In addition, a lot of your email will NOT get to the people you send to. Spam filters will delete them before the email ever gets there. Plus spam databases will most likely have these companies listed, so much of your email will not get through to AOL, MSN, and other major ISPs.

Legitimate mass mailing services will require the exact same things we do. If you do this legitimately, your email will get to where it should go. But you must follow the No Spam guidelines and require people to Double Opt in.