Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sending Valid Emails from Website



E-mails are one of the key elements of a website/web application. They are used in contact forms, sign-ups, notifications, newsletters, etc.

It is a common experience that sometimes e-mails sent from websites go to the junk folders or never reach.

Although it is not always possible to detect the reasons for this, there are several things that we can do to minimize the risk. Here they are:



  • Send E-mails Through A Valid E-mail Server With Authentication

This is the most important one which you may be automatically offering all the tips below.

It is mostly a good idea to send website e-mails through the e-mail server that will require authentication rather than the web server's SMTP server. Servers that are specifically set to send e-mails generally have Reverse DNS & SPF records, support greylisting ,etc.

Every scripting language offers methods to send e-mails with authentication.

On the other hand, sometimes, using e-mail servers are not enough as you may need to send lots of e-mails but the hosting provider may be applying limits, etc. In such cases, if you'll be sending e-mails through your web server, make sure to check these all:

  • Reverse DNS (rDNS)

As every domain resolves to an IP address, optionally, IPs can resolve to domain names which is called reverse DNS.

Many spammers use non-existing or dynamic e-mails without reverse DNS records. E-mail servers generally check if the sender IP has a reverse DNS record or not.

How to add reverse DNS records?: reverse resolving uses the pointer DNS record type (PTR record) which you should be asking your hosting provider to create it (check if it exists).

  • SPF Records

Sender Policy Framework is being used by more & more e-mail providers everyday (Gmail, Hotmail & Yahoo uses it) as a criteria to detect if a message is spam or not.

It simply allows the owner of a domain to specify their mail sending policy, (like which mail servers they use to send mail from their domain).

SPF records are DNS TXT records which an online setup wizard can help you creating it (you'll need to create new DNS records).

  • Using A SMTP Server That Supports Greylisting

A very powerful spam prevention method used by mail servers is called greylisting.

When you send an e-mail, the server receiving it can say to your SMTP server: "send it to me again in x minutes" which is mostly not supported by the methods spammers use.

So, you need a smart SMTP server who can understand this command (IIS SMTP can not) that will re-send the e-mails when requested.

  • No Bulk Mailing

Both the SMTP server you'll be sending e-mails & the servers that will receive them generally have rules to define an IP/e-mail as spammer who sends x number of mails in y seconds.

So, if you have a large userbase to send e-mail, it will be a good idea to send them in intervals.

  • No Sending Of E-mails In Alphabetical Order

Again, if you'll be sending e-mails to a large userbase, don't send them in alphabetical order of e-mails as mail servers can mark them as a dictionary attack.

  • Check If The Server IP Is Blacklisted

Blacklists are systems, that are used by most of the e-mail service providers, that has bot or human e-mail accounts which analyze the common e-mail traffic & can blacklist IPs according to e-mails sent from them.

The server you're using to send e-mails can be shared by many other users. And, a spam that is sent by anyone on that server can lead to a "blocking" by e-mail blacklists which will damage the communication of every account on it.

You can check if you IP is blacklisted from different resources.

I'll be updating if I get and experience any other tips for it.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Open Source Twitter/Microblogging script

Website Cloning is not new thing for us, we have seen many website clones become visible after original concept becomes popular. ne of the most popular trends on the web today is something called "Micro-Blogging". Made famous byTwitter.com, Micro-blogging is the best and most simple solution to answering the everyday question, "What are you doing?".

Many people are trying to create Twitter clone websites. I have seen people asking on forums and websites for Twitter clone scripts. in this post we roundups the 8 best and free Open Source Twitter clone scripts build your owner micro blogging platform.

1. Laconica twitter clone | Demo | Download

Laconica is a open source twitter clone. It's not full published yet but it will work like twitter and you're able to run it on your own site. There's already a version running: http://identi.ca/

Laconica twitter clone


2. Jaiku micro-blogging client goes open source | Demo | Download

JaikuEngine is a social microblogging platform that runs on AppEngine. JaikuEngine powers Jaiku.com. For the mobile client source, see: Jaiku Mobile client

Jaiku micro-blogging client goes open source


3. Jisko open-source microblogging platform | Demo | Donwload

Jisko


4. PageCookery | Demo | Download

Pagecookery Microblog tag and list of Pagecookery Microblog sites.

PageCookery


5. Mini Twitter Private | Demo | Download

Your business needs a private twitter. You can add several twitters account and use this twitter as a buckup of all your twitter accounts, and as a private twitter for all the members of your business. Sometimes you wont show all the things you are doing.

Mini Twitter Private


6. Echowaves - Twitter Clone | Demo | Download

Ruby on Rails Open Source Twitter Clone Script. This is a group chat social network application. You can start conversations and connect wih other users while discussing it. It is possible to make a conversation read-only for presenting a content too.

Echowaves - Twitter Clone


7. Floopo Free Twitter Clone | Demo | Download

Floopo enables to to create a micro blog (or what some would call a twitter clone) in just minutes. It comes with all the features you would expect but also includes some very cool features. For more details on the full list of feature see Micro blog features.

Floopo Free Twitter Clone


8. sweetter Better Implementation of Twitter | Demo | Download

Sweetter is an opensource Twitter-like service (or Twitter clone, might better describe the service). It’s microblogging combined with Pligg style voting. So you can write whatever you want—about that pie you ate, or about a new site you found—however, if the crowd doesn’t like your posts, you can lose karma points.

sweetter
9. Sharetronix| Demo | Download

Sharetronix Twitter Clone Script is the newest Twitter clone script that I have come across. In the past, I had discussed about 24 twitter clone scripts both free and paid using which you could make a Twitter like site yourself. This a new addition to the 24 which makes it now 25 twitter lone scripts on the blog. As Twitter grows more and more we will be seeing more such kind of scripts. I will surely keep you all updated.
Sharetronix open source twitter clone script
Sharetronix Opensource is a multimedia microblogging platform. It helps people in a community, company, or group to exchange short messages over the Web. Very similar to Twitter, users can easily connect with each other with open or private threads.


10.Yonkly – Open Source Twitter | Download
Yonkly is build on Asp.net MVC framework is another Free Open Source Twitter Clone and Microblogging script as well as web service.
Features of Yonkly :Based on ASP.net MVC framework makes it really fast;Very Easy to setup and take very less time;Supports Timeline and Groups;Message Search like many other features;Active Developer community.

Yonkly Twitter Clone Script

Size of Yonkly Twitter Clone script is Just 1.3MB


11. Motion : Download
TypePad Motion
TypePad Motion enables publishers and marketers to create vibrant, branded communities that deepen loyalty and increase page views while giving you total control of your brand.
It is based on Pownce & MovableType Motion and built with Django.
12. Blur.it : Download:

Blurt
Blurt.it is a fresh microblogging application that requires PHP/MySQL to run.
Very similar to Twitter, users can easily connect with each other with open or private threads.


If you are interested in creating a complete social networking web space you can choose any of the Opensource scripts from the following list :