mail() blocked by provider any work arounds?

jonabomer

I have the mail function scripted in several different places in a web site I have been working on. It worked on my notebook (IIS) and then later on my live testing server (through a hosting co) and now on the clients (hosted) space it wont send. You can see the php working because there is autofill governed by it and a very basic form authentication which also can be seen working but the "mail()" will not send out!

I emailed the "support" staff thinking maybe something in the mail server settings at the control panal could be tweaked to get some results - lotta help those guys were, they told me to use their free scripts for "autoresponders", I'm not sure they even understood what they were actually telling me to do...

Anyways I need to get this working now that its live, my friend told me to post here - anybody got any ideas or advice??

-jon

Kudose

Are you sure that the host hasn't disabled the mail function? Check to see if the sendmail_path in php.ini has a valid path.

wilku

In case you don't have mail() function working, try to use some mailing scripts (like PHPMailer for example). You can set an external smtp address and send emails through it. This solution works for me.

jonabomer

Ok thanks guys. In regards to the ini file I'm not sure I have access to that but I've been told that there are "other" mail functions to use. How does the other idea work where I could I guess for lack of a better word "route" the traffic though another smtp server, who's server do I use? Just grab like a yahoo IP - no way I'm gonna use my (hosted) dev server! I'll definately check into it tho - any other ideas would still be highly prized!

thanks guys

-jon

Kudose

No, Yahoo won't let you route mail through them. If your ISP offers you an e-mail address, like most do, then you can use thier SMTP server to route your outgoing mail. So, you'd be sending it from your page, but through thier servers.

jonabomer

Ok, thanks kudose. I'm actually looking over the providers "free scripts" there might actually be one worth using - yes it feels like giving in, but this job is supposed to be done and I've already recieved the final payment and it just seems to keep going and going so... I'm now mainly concerned with response time and with reaching the end of this mess!

If the provided "scripts" dont solve the problem (and I dont have full faith that they will) then I'll attempt a rescripting or somthing like that - but thanks loads cuz that does clear up my confusion on the smtp server usage a pretty good deal...

I'm sure I'll be back with more questions (maybe even before the day is out :queasy: anyways thanks guys

Keep up the good work!

-jon