E mail software

[#1]

Does anyone know of any decent software I can use for sending around 200 e mails for my local group? I'm using Thunderbird but loading the names is tricky and capricious, the template cannot be saved or altered properly, it loses the "Bcc" sometimes and continually drops the connection. Hopefully Freeware.

[#2]

Might be a bit overkill (and it's not free), but I've used this before and found it to work reasonably well. I'm sure somebody will be able to offer a cheaper alternative mind you.

[#3]

If you have MS Office, you could create a mail-merge.
http://www.robdickson.co.uk/PC_Advice/word_mail_merge.php
It's probably also possible with OpenOffice (which is open source), but I've never tried it.

[#4]

Have a look through this list (they are all in your price range!):
https://sourceforge.net/search/?words=email+mass&type_of_search=soft&words=email+list&search=Search
You might find something there.