CGI Timeout error in news mailing application

PHP script mailing application gives problem

[agbenny]

Hello,

We have a base of emails from our subscription application which we have written in PHP and mySQL. While running the script to send emails(around 3500 ids), I get an error ""CGI Timeout
The specified CGI application exceeded the allowed time for processing. The server has deleted the process."
We use windows 2003 with IIS. I tried to set the timeout maximum, but still the error chases.

Anyone can help?

Thanks in advance
Kind Regards,
Benny

[jatar_k]

how many can you send at once with out it dying?

I think I would split them up and send them in chunks. The other thing to keep in mind is your ISP may not like 3K emails coming out in 30 seconds or so. Our ISP sometimes starts burning them after 500 or so.

[horaghn]

Move the process to PERL and use a CRONTAB to run them. This will ensure you do not get a timeout error and you take the person out of the mix.

[jezra]

I agree with jatar_k, break the emails up. My email server will process no more than 300 emails at a time.
try the following recipe and adjust to taste.
1. write a php script to check the database for emails and send the first 200 emails
2. from the control panel, create a scheduled task to run the php script every minute

This will send 3500 emails in just under 1/2 an hour. I haven't worked on Win2003 server, but I work on 2000 server quite a bit and I assume 2003 has scheduled tasks in the control panel.