Some emailers have the luxury of having an entire month (or longer) to setup and execute their mailings. They have weeks to plan, collect, and execute. But for many StrongMail customers, there is a constant barrage of mailings happening and the staff responsible for executing them can't wait until the last minute to get all of the pieces together and hit the Launch button.

Another scenario is that emailers want the mailing to start at a particular time, but won't necessarily be at their desk (or awake) to hit the Launch button at the desired time. For folks in these two situations (and maybe you, too), the Message Studio scheduler is just what you need.

Fortunately, using the Message Studio scheduler is a breeze. Any standard or A/B split mailing can be a scheduled mailing with only a few extra clicks. For standard mailings, the work flow is identical right up until the last step, so you don't need to do anything different as you setup the mailing. For A/B split mailings, scheduling is one of the components of the mailing that you can test, so you have the opportunity to schedule the splits together or individually.

Here are some screen shots of how you can set a standard mailing and an A/B Split mailing to be a scheduled launch:

Standard Mailings

When you get to the Launch screen in the Mailings work flow, just select "Scheduled" as the Launch Type and you will be presented with a Date and Time entry field to set when to launch the mailing.

A/B Split Mailings

When you get to the Launch screen in the A/B Test Mailings work flow, just select "Scheduled" as the Launch Type for one, multiple or all of the test splits and you will be presented with a Date and Time entry field to set when to launch the mailing. For A/B Test Mailings, you can select any combination of scheduled and launch now across the splits.

It's just that easy. You may even want to use the A/B split feature of Message Studio to determine if your current send schedule is optimal for your audience. As your audience grows, the most effective day or time of launch may change so it's a good idea to check it every once in a while.

For most of our customers, email is a mission critical component of their business. Along with that status comes the need for security. StrongMail is designed with security in mind, utilizing the HTTPS protocol for accessing the system.

However, utilizing HTTPS requires that users install 3rd party SSL certificates from a Certificate Authority (CA) to validate the secure installation. The use of HTTPS and SSL certificates enables the system to negotiate a stateful connection. This process insures that the originating system is who it says it is and creates a secure connection between the server and user's browser.

SSL certificates are not free and if an organization feels that their StrongMail system has been implemented with sufficient security through architecture and procedures, they may opt not to purchase an SSL certificate from a CA.

In this case, users will be presented with warnings (see example below) from their browser that the certificate is either missing or does not match the system that they are attempting to connect to. Most users find these SSL warnings to be a nuisance. There is also the possibility that some users may be confused by the warnings, which can generate unnecessary Help Desk calls.

There is no harm in using the default certificates, but many users complain about them. Additionally, some browsers make it difficult to navigate to a site with a questionable certificate. Your IT team may want to replace the default certificate with their own, to provide a more comfortable security experience to their users.

The following procedures should be used for creating and installing a self-signed certificate for the StrongMail UI, and importing that certificate into Internet Explorer 7 to eliminate the certificate errors.

1.) Login to your StrongMail Server as root, change directory to /tmp

$ cd /tmp

======= Generating the SSL Certificate =======

2. Create a private key:


$ openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
Generating RSA private key, 1024 bit long modulus
....++++++
....++++++
e is 65537 (0x10001)
Enter pass phrase for server.key:
Verifying - Enter pass phrase for server.key:


Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). You will be prompted to input information for key generation. The Common Name you use must match the hostname you use to connect to the StrongMail UI


******
This example has generic information, you will need to replace with your own site specific details.
******


$ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
Enter pass phrase for server.key:
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Berkshire]:State
Locality Name (eg, city) [Newbury]:City
Organization Name (eg, company) [My Company Ltd]:Business Inc.
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Support
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:hostname.domain.com
Email Address []:userid@domain.com

Please enter the following 'extra' attributes to be sent with your certificate request
A challenge password []:
An optional company name []:


******
NOTE: This is an example from one of the StrongMail Inc, test systems.
******


$ openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
Enter pass phrase for server.key:
You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter '.', the field will be left blank.
-----
Country Name (2 letter code) [GB]:US
State or Province Name (full name) [Berkshire]:California
Locality Name (eg, city) [Newbury]:Redwood Shores
Organization Name (eg, company) [My Company Ltd]:StrongMail Systems Inc.
Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:Support
Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:sup5.strongmailsystems.com
Email Address []:support@strongmailsystems.com


3.) Make a copy of your private key before you remove the pass phrase:


$ cp server.key server.key.org


4.) Remove the pass phrase from the private key:


$ openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key
Enter pass phrase for server.key.org:
writing RSA key


5.) Generate the self-signed certificate:



$ openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt
Signature ok
subject=/C=US/ST=State/L=City/O=Business Inc./OU=Support/CN=hostname.domain.com/emailAddress=userid@domain.com
Getting Private key


===== Installing the Self-Signed Certificate into StrongMail =====


6.) Backup the original private key and certificate:


$ cd /data1/strongmail/thirdparty/httpd/conf/ssl/
$ cp server.key server.key.old
$ cp server.crt server.crt.old


7.) Replace the private key and certificate with the files recently created:


$ cp /tmp/server.crt .
cp: overwrite `./server.crt'? y
$ cp /tmp/server.key .
cp: overwrite `./server.key'? y


8.) Restart the StrongMail UI:


$ cd /data1/strongmail/strongmail-ui
$ ./sm-ui stop
$ ./sm-ui start


====== Installing the Certificate into Internet Explorer =======


9.) Launch Internet Explorer


10.) Browse to the StrongMail UI in Internet Explorer 7


11.) Select 'Continue to this website' when you receive the Certificate error. You should see a red Certificate Error to the right of the address bar. Click the Certificate error and select 'View certificates.'


12.) Click 'Install certificate,' then click 'Next' on the Welcome window of the Certificate Import Wizard.


13.) Click 'Next' on Certificate Store, leave the radio button on 'Automatically select...'


14.) Click 'Finish,' you may receive a pop-up to confirm that you wish to import the certificate, if so, click 'Yes'


15.) 'OK' the complete notification, and the Certificate window.


16.) Restart IE, browse to the StrongMail UI, and you should no longer receive the Certificate error. 

A common question that we get from customers is "How do I calculate the bandwidth that StrongMail is using or requires when sending messages? They typically want to see how much bandwidth is being used or are
planning to expand their email programs and want to know how much bandwidth will be needed to accommodate their new mailing volumes and schedule.

For starters, here's the formula for computing bandwidth:

Bandwidth in bits per second = [ (msgs/hr) x (msg size in bits) ] /
(secs/hr)

If the average size of a message is 4kb and you want to send 250K messages per hour, then the required outbound message bandwidth could be calculated as follows:

[ 250,000 msgs/hr x (4 x 1024 x 8) bits ]/ 3600 sec = 2275600 bits/sec
= 2.28 Mbps

So if you have an average message size of 4kb, you would require 2.28 Mbps of bandwidth in order to send without being constrained by your pipe.

If you want to determine how many messages you can send given the size of your current pipe, you can use the following formula to figure out the maximum number of messages that can be sent per hour. In the example
below, we will be using an available outbound pipe of 24Mbps, and the average message size is 24kb

[X msgs/hr x (24 x 1024 x 8)bits] / (3,600 sec/hr) = 24Mbps

X = [ 24 x 1024 x 1024 x 3600 ] / [24 x 1024 x 8]

X = 468,000 msgs/hr

With an average message size of 24kb and available bandwidth of 24Mbps, a maximum of 468,000 messages per hour would be expected output in an ideal scenario.

Notice that I said, "In an ideal scenario." When making these types of calculations, the formulas mentioned above assume 100% availability of the pipe, which in reality doesn't happen. To account for overhead and
network congestion, you should lop off 10-15% of the bandwidth figure (or more if your pipe is shared with other functions besides email sending) you get from the calculations in order to get a more realistic number.

Here's a handy Excel spreadsheet that can help you determine sending times with a variety of different standard pipe sizes. You just plug in the size of the message, number of messages and the utilization factor and the spreadsheet does the rest!

Bandwidth_Calc.xls

Special thanks go out to the StrongMail Support team and Luis Rojas for their assistance with this posting.