Whether or not email marketing software can be installed and run on a thumb drive depends on the stability of the thumb drive. When the software is sending mass emails, it is usually reading and writing data to and from the thumb drive, although not very frequently. If something goes wrong with the thumb drive (access error, or the thumb drive is removed), the software may stop running and it may affect the email deliverability of your marketing campaign.
 

Therefore, we suggest the following when you are running email marketing software on a thumb drive:

1. If the sending task can be finished within 30 minutes or the number of recipient is small, it is fine to run the software from a thumb drive. After all, the stability of the thumb drive is worse than hard disk, so it is better to keep the sending time short.

2. You can install the software on a thumb drive first, and copy the whole folder to the hard disk and run it from the hard disk. After sending out the email campaigns, you can copy the whole folder from the hard disk back to the thumb drive to ensure all data and records are stored in the same place.

Last but not least, if you are 1and1Mail Free Edition user, feel free to use the software anywhere you like. If you are 1and1Mail Personal and Business Edition user, 1 license only allows you to run the software on 1 PC.

In 1and1Mail 3.2, we are going to launch a new feature called "Auto IP Switcher" that can change your IP address automatically when you are sending your mass email campaigns. Why do you need it? How does it work?

1. Why do you need "Auto IP Switcher" in your email marketing software?

"Auto IP Switcher" can help us send more emails using free email accounts, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and AOL Mail. But if you are using your corporate email accounts or paid email accounts, most likely you do not need this feature.

As we know, nowadays, most free email service providers have become very strict with mass mailing behaviors. None of them would like to become a victim of spammers. Therefore, they limit the daily sending limit of free email accounts in two ways:

(1) Daily quota of a single email account

On average, a single email account can send out 100 – 500 emails per day, depending on your account reputation with the service provider. To play safe, do not go over 100 per account per day, otherwise, your email account will be suspended soon. So, can I sign up multiple email accounts and send 100 × n emails per day? It depends on the following.

(2) Daily quota of multiple email accounts from a single IP address

To prevent you from sending mass mails by applying multiple email accounts, the service provider also sets a daily limit on number of emails from a single IP address. This is a very smart move because in most cases, one PC only has one IP over a certain period of time. It is difficult to send more emails with multiple email accounts under a single IP address.
 

2. How to get a new IP address to increase email deliverability?

The traditional way is: manually disconnect your Internet connection, and redial to reconnect.

In most cases, after you disconnect and redial, your PC  will be assigned a new IP address unless

(1) You connect to the Internet through a static IP.

(2) You connect to the Internet through a router. (You need to restart the router to get a new IP.)

(3) You connect to the Internet through the local network of your company or your school.
 

3. How to switch IP automatically in 1and1Mail?

To maximize the email deliverability, 1and1Mail uses a special way to do the IP switching. In 1and1Mail Personal Edition and Business Edition, you are allowed to add multiple email accounts from different email service providers, and also divide them into groups. 1and1Mail will change IP automatically based on groups, not based on a fixed time interval. Please follow the 3 steps as below:

(1) Enter your username and password in Redial Setting for Auto IP Switcher. (Tools -> Settings -> Auto IP Switcher)

(2) When you start the sending, 1and1Mail will select a certain number of email accounts from the same ESP (email service provider). For example, 2 email accounts from Gmail, 2 email accounts from Hotmail, 2 email accounts from Yahoo! Mail, 2 email accounts from AOL Mail. Since each of them are from different ESPs, it can fully take advantage of the power of a single IP address.

(3) 1and1Mail send mass emails out using the email addresses in Step 2 by turns. For example, send 20 emails through each email address. After it is finished, 1and1Mail automatically disconnect the Internet and redial to get a new IP, and then continue the sending through another group of new email addresses again.

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1and1Mail 3.2 will be launched in Nov 2011. You can download the Free Edition it from here. But since 1and1Mail Free Edition only allows 1 email account, the Auto IP Switcher only makes sense in Personal and Business Edition.