Problem: simple mail() takes too long..need suggestions

[bnownlater]

I have a simple form with 15 variables that I mail to one person. The process is taking 30 + seconds to complete (which seems to be high)? Is there a better way to handle this? I am using 4.2.1 with Win NT. Here is my code:

// Set the script's max execution time to 300 seconds
set_time_limit(300);

$to = "[e-mail]"; //The e-mail address to be sent to
        $subject = "Submission"; //The subject line of the e-mail
        $mailheaders = "From: ".trim($reviewer)."<".trim($rev_email).">\n"; //The users name will appear here
        $mailheaders .= "X-Mailer: PHP\n"; //mailer
        $mailheaders .= "X-Priority: 1\n"; //1 UrgentMessage, 3 Normal
        $mailheaders .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\nContent-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\nTransport-Encoding: 8bit\n";//Converts text into html for the e-mail message
        //$mailheaders .= "Reply-To: [email][e-mail][/email]\n\n"; //a please reply message will display with e-mail address

    $msg = "
        <style>}
        TD { /* set default for text in a table */
        font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
        font-size: 12pt;
        vertical-align: top;
        }
        </style>
        <table>
        <tr><td>
        <table border=1 cellspacing=1 cellpadding=3 >
                <tr><td colspan=2 align=center bgcolor='2b4e8e'><font color='ffffff'><b>Your Information</b></font></td></tr>
                <tr><td><br><b>Name:</b></td><td><br>&nbsp;$reviewer</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Company:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$rev_co</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>E-mail:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$rev_email</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Phone:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$rev_phone</td></tr>
                <tr><td colspan=2 align=center bgcolor='2b4e8e'><font color='ffffff'><b>Facility Contact Information</b></font></td></tr>
                <tr><td><br><b>Facility Name:</b></td><td><br>&nbsp;$co_name</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>City:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$co_city</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>State:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$co_state</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Contact Name(s):</b></td><td>&nbsp;$cont_name</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Contact E-mail(s):</b></td><td>&nbsp;$cont_email</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Contact Phone Number(s):</b></td><td>&nbsp;$cont_phone</td></tr>    
                <tr><td><b>Contact Fax Number(s):</b></td><td>&nbsp;$cont_fax</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Federal ID Number:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$fed_id</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Web Site:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$web</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Facility Type:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$fac_type</td></tr>
                <tr><td><b>Recommendation:</b></td><td>&nbsp;";
                If ($rec=="3"){
                    $msg = $msg."Highly Recommended</td></tr>";
                }elseif ($rec=="2"){
                    $msg = $msg."Recommended</td></tr>";
                }elseif ($rec=="1"){
                    $msg = $msg."Not Recommended</td></tr>";
                }
                $msg=$msg."

                <tr><td><b>Comment:</b></td><td>&nbsp;$comm_comment</td></tr>
        </table>
        </td></tr>                    
        </table>";
    mail($to, $subject, $msg, $mailheaders); //mail function to e-mail the form

[Agent_Dwarf]

Hi bnownlater,

First off, why didn't you update to 4.22? You know there's a huge security whole, right?

Anyway, on to the question.

You might be able to run your script in the background using exec(). I haven't been able to find the Windows equivalent of "&". But if you can, try this:

exec("C:\PHP\php.exe C:\path\to\script\to\execute 1> C:\errormessages.txt 2>&1 &");

Like I said, I can't find any Windows equivalent of "&", if anyone has, please let me know.

Edit: I'm an idiot, I thought you meant mass mailings. :o

[edwardsbc]

I seriously doubt PHP is the problem here. Try telneting to the SMTP server used by PHP.INI? how lond does it take to get a "hello" (HELO)? My bet is the SMTP server is slow or the DNS query to resolve it is slow. You could overcome the DNS problem by setting an alias in your local hosts file or by simply using the SMTP servers IP address in your PHP.INI