The Mail Function.

[PHPGuru_2700]

Hey All!

The Program Below Doesn't work can anyone tell me why or give me an alternative for sending an email with php.

<?
mail("[e-mail]", "My Subject", "Line 1\nLine 2");
?>

of course I would set the to statement to a real address/

thanks!

[Ph0eniX]

It's probably because PHP.ini isn't configured properly. You have to set the SMTP server in it. Make sure that the SMTP you use allows relay from the machine sending it:

http://php.weblogs.com/stories/storyReader$67

[PHPGuru_2700]

Sorry if I sound Newbish but how do you do that ( in detail ) I've never done anything with the mail function or anything lol
thanks!

[Ph0eniX]

Originally posted by PHPGuru_2700
Sorry if I sound Newbish but how do you do that ( in detail ) I've never done anything with the mail function or anything lol
thanks!

You need to find the following line in your php.ini file and set the SMTP value to an actual, existing mail server:

[mail function]
SMTP = smtp.server.com

For the purpose of this exercise you can probably use the local machine running sendmail (if you're Unix/Linux based). If you're on a NT-ish OS, you can install the SMTP service on the machine and that should work just fine too.

Most mail servers do not allow mail from untrusted hosts. To see if your mail server will relay your mail the messages for you, you can hook yourself to it by telnet-ing into port 25 on the SMTP machine on it and typing the following commands:

HELO (or EHLO on some servers and on some you have to send your domain name as well).

MAIL FROM: <your email address goes here>
RCPT TO: <your receipient's address goes here>
DATA: body of your message
.
You should try sending e-mail to yourself first and if it shows up in your Inbox then you know that your mail server is relaying at least for your address. Then you can try sending one to someone else if see if they get it.