Problem with mail() -> Failed to connect

tictac

Hello,
I have a problem with mail() fonction using PHP4, win2000 Server and IIS.
First I had a "server error", to solve it I specified in the php.ini file the IP address for the SMTP server (which is MS Exchange on an other PC).
But with this change I now have a "Failed to connect" error.
I don't see what's wrong but I don't have this problem when I use my code with Mandrake, Apache and default settings.

If someone could help me it would be great,
Thanks for advance.

ShawnD

doesn't the mail() function try to use sendmail? sendmail is a program that only Linux/Unix has.
some guys at a different forum told me that in order to send email through SMTP, i needed to use the fsockopen function which you can learn about here:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.pfsockopen.php
did you use that function?

tsigo

You don't get the error on Linux because it's using sendmail. To use an SMTP server I think it's a bit more complicated, something with opening sockets and writing directly to the socket like you were in telnet with the SMTP server.

That might not be true for a Windows server though, as you said it's a different setting in the php.ini file.

ShawnD

ok here is what Programming PHP by Rasmus Lerdorf says about fsockopen:
int fsockopen(string host, int port[, int error, string message[, double timeout]]])
Opens a TCP or UDP connection to a remote host on a specific port. By default, TCP is used; to connect via UDP, host must begin with the protocol udp://. If specified, timeout indicates the length of time in seconds to wait before timing out.
If the connection is successful, a virtual file pointer is returned, which can be used with functions such as fgets() and fputs(). If the connection fails, false is returned. If error and message are supplied, they are set to the error number and error string, respectively.

man i love this book 🙂

tictac

Ok, I will read the fsockopen function doc, but I don't think that my system is trying to use Sendmail on Win2000 because as I already said I had specified the IP for the MS Exchange Server.
At the moment the php.ini line "sendmail_path" is in commentary (it is explain that this line is only for Unix system) but shouldn't I nevertherless specify a path?

Thanks for yours answers (and the next ones)

ShawnD

you don't have sendmail, do not specify a path.

what is an MS Exchange Server?

dannys

Mail() is a bit of a dodgy command in the first place (slow and unreliable error reports) - I'd go with a custom SMTP class - there are plenty about (In fact there's a suitably implementation in PEAR).

You can then setup the class to interact with the M.Sexchange Server and use the class wherever you normally use mail()

tictac

to reply to ShawnD MS Exchange is Microsoft mail server (it is often (always) use in association with Outlook).

tictac

Thanks Dannys,
I will try to find a SMTP class as you said 🙂