ArgoSoft Autoresponders

I've changed my web hosting company numerous times, and each time the change is a little bit worse. It's not moving that site that's so bad (although it's a hassle); it's not changing the domain name (that task is easy); and it's not even changing operating systems. No, the real hassle has to do with simple autoresponders.

You see, I've set up over 300 autoresponders for the Internet Tips and Secrets web site. These autoresponders allow readers to request copies of various articles via email in simple text form. This makes it easier for the articles to be reprinted in newsletters and websites.

These autoresponders are very simple: you send an email to an email address (it does not matter what the text of the message contains), and you get an email back with the article.

The problem is setting up these autoresponders has always been a totally manual process. Each time I've moved web sites, I've had to spend days cutting the autoresponders from one site and pasting them to another.

Finally, I decided enough was enough - time to get my own email server. I've been through over a dozen web hosts, and all of them rate no higher than a D, at best. It was obvious that I had to be prepared to move my site at any time, and I was very tired of re-entering all of these autoresponders by hand.

I looked around, and as it turned out there was really only one choice for an inexpensive email server which also supported autoresponders - ArgoSoft Pro. I read the promotional material and yes, it supported simple autoresponders. Once I downloaded and tested the software I was sold - because I could automate the entering of the 325 autoresponders.

You see, ArgoSoft Pro does not use a sophisticated database or anything fancy to store it's messages and variables. It takes advantage of the Windows directory structure and file system to do the work for it. Thus, each autoresponder is a folder (the name is the autoresponder name) which contains a few text files. It was possible for me to download the text files from my current host, then write a simple script to create the folders and populate them with the information.

Less than an hour after installing ArgoSoft Pro, I had created all 325 autoresponders! Now that was pretty cool.

As the screen below shows, creating an autoresponder is very simple.  Just select "Configuration" from the "Tools" menu, then select the domain name for the autoresponder. Create the account, then select the "Autoresponder" tab. Fill in the Subject, text and enable it by checking the box.

That's literally all there is to the process. After that, the autoresponder will take care of itself. 

There are some really nice features to these autoresponders. 

• You can use the standard ArgoSoft Pro antispam features to reject incoming messages which match certain criteria.
• If someone sends message after message to the autoresponder, all except for the first will be rejected.

It's important to understand that these are simple autoresponders. One email from a person returns one email to the person. That's all they do. But if that's all you need, it's perfect.