Trick to mail() on Win32!?!?!!

Anon

Ok,

What is it the trick to getting the mail() function to work on Win32? I've tried everything I could find. From making sure I had the correct smtp settings in php.ini and making sure my mail server was working ok, to restarting everything, to many other things.

I'm running Win2000 with the latest Apache and latest PHP 4 and Internet Anywhere Mail Server. Everything works fine, but the mail() function always returns an "Unkown error" or "Parse error"...

Any tricks?

Thanks,
Chris

Anon

I had similar problems with Windows running PHP 3.0.14 and trying to use mail(); to send email through the SMTP Service.

I was using NT 4 and IIS 5 and even though I set the smtp server correctly in the php3.ini file I got a Server Error message from the php script when it tried to connect with mail(); to send.

One trick I thought might have worked was to use Blat mail (do a search for blat mail you can even use my search portal at http://askpete.net if you like) like I have done before with Perl scripts running on Windows.

The other possibility might have been to have the script write the email message out to a file using fwrite(); (see php manual function reference at http://php.net) in the SMTP mail servers pickup folder.

Also The SMTP Service was accessible from the command line so I could have used exec(); (see php manual function reference at http://php.net) to send the email.

These alternative ways though would require your script to build a correctly formatted email message in a variable string before either writing it to a file or passing it as an argument to a command line program. So it will require a little more work than sending email through mail();

Either way I never got around to working through which solution was better since I did not have the time or the real need for it.

Hope this info helps you out.

Anon

I have this working on win2000 and IIS. All I did was edit the php.ini file and input the mail server name where it asks for it(about half way down).

Anon

A lot of people seem to have trouble with PHP & Win32 machines, then some people have no problems. I can get PHP + Apache + mail() to work like a charm on my linux box, but I have nightmares about my win32 box.

Anon

On win2k running a virtual SMTP server, I kept getting an error saying "Warning: Failed to Receive".

I was using the ISAPI module as a filter and as the script engine.

I removed the ISAPI DLL from the script engine and put in php.exe.

This solved my problem, although any documentation on status of mail() in the ISAPI module would be appreciated.

Anon

Make sure the sendmail_from address in your php.ini file is valid and active email address. I had the same error message, but after checking my SMTP server log files, I found that it disconnects users with an invalid email address. I put in a good email address and everything works fine.

Anon

Hi All,

Thanks for the advice -- I managed to get this working while I still had some hair left. It was an invalid from address is my case (I had assumed it wouldn't matter).

Phew.

Anon

Hi.

I thought I had this problem licked when I assigned the SMTP variable to my mail server's name (e.g. SMTP = smtp.somedomain.com).

I worked for a whole afternoon, then suddenly stopped. Now the code that used to work doesn't anymore. I've tried it on both Apache 1.3.x on Win2K professional and IIS4 on NT Server. I'm running PHP4.0.3 for Win32.

What's happening? How do I fix this?

Regards

Anon

Hi! I'm running a IIS 4 on Window NT4 and PHP 4. I can't get mail() to work! I'm getting the message: Server Error in "scripname linenumber"

Can anyone help me?
Thanks
Martin

Anon

Hi,

Same exact problem here - same error.
Windows 2000 - IIS 5.0 - PHP 4.0 - Exchange 2000

I also get the same error when using mail().
My PHP script sends 2 e-mails off of a form submittal - one goes to me and sends fine b/c it is an internal account. The other mail is supposed to be an automatic confirm/reply to the sender - this is the one that does not work (external mail). I can't seem to get anything to go out to the internet - I have tried many things and searched far and wide but can't seem to figure this out - hoping a simple fix is all it will take.

My mail settings in php.ini:
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = 192.168.10.49 ; for Win32 only

; For Win32 only.
sendmail_from = info@jabezco.com ; for Win32 only

; For Unix only. You may supply arguments as well (default: 'sendmail -t -i').
;sendmail_path =

??? - Is an IP address acceptable for SMTP?

I am sure that my PHP script is correct - like I said, one mail works the other doesn't. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Brian

Anon

Absolutely the same problem. It works on a Win 2000 Pro machine but it does not work on a Win 2000 Server with the same settings. But perhaps that is not the problem. How did you guys solve your problems eventually? Thanks for any suggestions...

Anon

Hi Arian -- I have a similar problem, only your "yay!" gives me some hope... However, if you say you had "invalid from address" ... what is the CORRECT one? Is it written somewhere? Can't find it. Is it an IP number? Or does the domain matter? Please answer. Thanks, Tomi

Anon

I got it to work too. I had an invalid return email address also.

I'm thankful for these archived forums!!

Jim

Anon

I need help!
I am new to PHP but trying to use the mail() function...having similar problems...took your guys advice, ie making sure there is a proper "from address", etc.

Is there someting I'm not getting in regards to the whole SMTP server. Was there some special software I had to add for this or is there some configuration setting from Outlook Express that needs to be copied to that field in the php.ini file.

Currently I have the "SMTP = localhost"; I've tried this with my ip address instead of "localhost".

I've put my yahoo email address in the "sendmail_from" field in the php.ini. This just has to be any valid email address right?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Anon

Hi,

I had the same problem, and i just changed the SMTP server name in php.ini to a working server. I couldn't get the IIS smtp server to work, so i used my companies MS Exchange server.

eg. in php.ini
SMTP = myexchangeservername ; for Win32 only

zlatan

OK, here's my setup... and it works !
Web:WinNT 4.0 sp6a, Apache, PHP
Mail: Exchange Server 5.5
edited the conf.ini SMTP part
SMTP = exchange servers IP (DNS was not working)
sendmail_from = (enter email address valid for this domain/server - important !)

everything works OK.

If you are trying to create a kind of EMAIL THIS TO A FREND page, where you allow sender to type in his email address, you might run into a problem with FROM ADDRESS.
Why ?
Because in most cases your SMTP server (be it Exchange or something else) doesn't support mail relaying - meaning that the FROM address must always be email address valid for your domain.

You can play around and do the same thing as Yahoo. From address is always let's say: webmail@yourdomain.com (must be valid in domain), and you include a line in the message body saying:
<? echo "This article has been sent to you by: <a href=\"mailto:".$senderaddress."\">".$sender."</a>"; ?>
or something...

Hope this can be of help to you.

Anon

Gah! - I'm having the same problem too. If I use the DNS name I get "Warning: failed to connect", and if I use the IP address I get "Warning: server error". The SMTP mail server works for cgi scripts but not PHP! Any suggestions or solutions would be very much appreciated.