Thanks all for reponses and valuable insights/guidance. I have contacted my hosting company and find i do have CRON job functionality. I am investigating this. Meantime i have implemented phpMailer and added a "please wait" image using javascript when someone submits the form so they know something is happening other than just a hung browser.

wGEric your comment "You could have PHP execute scripts on the server that would send the emails and not block the PHP." - I'd be interested to understand what you mean? I assume php will send the mail to the mail server then await a response to see if it has actually worked (obviously in the php i am awaiting this response and will breake the send loop if its unfavourable). However are you saying somehow if i found a way not to wait for this response it would speed up i.e. send the mail then forget about it in the php so if it fails it fails?

Ewan