[Resolved] php mailer, From: field problem

[riojimmy]

I use the mailer in lots of areas, and usually in plain email we receive the emails with the senders email in the "From" field no problem.

When I set it up as HTML email all is fine (including the Reply-to field) except that the "From" field is our domain name:
From: here.com. If you reply-to the email the senders address does fill the "To:" Field.

here is code:

$to = "<[e-mail]>";
$subject = "Information request";

$msg = "<FONT face=Arial size=2>BUSINESS TYPE: <B>\t$type_realestate $type_smbiz $type_art $type_other</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "DESCRIPTION: <B>\t$businessdescription</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "NAME: <B>\t$firstname $lastname</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "ADDRESS: <B>\t$address1</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "<B>\t$address2</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "CITY: <B>\t$city</B><BR>";
$msg .= "STATE: <B>\t$state";  
$msg .= "</B>  ZIP: <B>\t$zip</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "COMPANY NAME: <B>\t$companyname</B><BR><BR>"; 
$msg .= "PHONE: <B>\t$phone</B>";  $msg .= "  CELL: <B>\t$cellphone</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "E-MAIL: <B>\t$email</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "WEBSITE: <B>\t$url</B><BR><BR>"; 
$msg .= "How did you hear about NML?: <B>\t$source</B><BR>"; 
$msg .= "Additional information: <B>\t$AdditonalInfo</B><BR><BR>"; 

$msg .= "SOURCE: <B>\t$hostname</B></FONT><BR>"; 

$headers = "From: $firstname $lastname <$email>\r\n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0\r\n";
$headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: $firstname $lastname <$email>\r\n";
$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP / ".phpversion()."";

mail($to, $subject, $msg, $headers);

Just to clarify that the exact same code is used for plain email except for the headers: Mime.... and Content-type... and html code.

Since the reply-to works this is only an anoyance, but I would like to see the senders email identity in the from list instead of our domain name.

Is there a fix for this, our php version is 4.3.10
thanks

[drew010]

if you are going to use the name <email> scheme, the name needs to be in quotes.
so the two lines
$headers = "From: $firstname $lastname <$email>\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: $firstname $lastname <$email>\r\n";

should be

$headers = "From: \"$firstname $lastname\" <$email>\r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: \"$firstname $lastname\" <$email>\r\n";

[riojimmy]

thank you, I've made that change but the results are the same.

the From field shows the domain name and not the email address.

[drew010]

i think if you just want to see their email address, it should be
$headers = "From: <$email>\r\n";

[riojimmy]

Yeah, tried that too.
Actually I've been living with this as is for months now.
I just happen to have the time to spare to troubleshoot it.

As I said it only fails with html email not plain text.

I've spent hours searching for someone else who has encountered this and I come up with -- no one.

Is this a product of safe mode or something?
A setting to thwart spammers who are using from addresses not their own?

[drew010]

can you paste the headers from an actual email you receive? maybe something on the server is changing them for some reason.

[riojimmy]

Received: from [64.70.190.11] ([64.70.190.11]:53651 "HELO
web02.ahp.ftl.affinity.com") by ams013.ftl.affinity.com with SMTP
id S420883AbVFINfT; Thu, 9 Jun 2005 09:35:19 -0400
Received: by web02.ahp.ftl.affinity.com (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Thu, 9 Jun 2005 09:35:19 -0400
From: "here.com" <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2005 09:35:19 -0400
To: <[e-mail]>
Subject: NML Sample Package request
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Reply-To: John Doe <[e-mail]>
X-Mailer: PHP / 4.3.10
Message-Id: <S420883AbVFINfT/[e-mail]>

(as you can see I just changed the actual domains to: here
and the name to John Doe <me
otherwise this is exact

[drew010]

and is [e-mail] the correct email address or is that wrong too?

[riojimmy]

It's wrong, the whole line should be:

From: [e-mail] <[e-mail]>

[drew010]

if you are on a *nix server, try using the 5th parameter mail() accepts.
put [e-mail]
That should override what the host is doing by adding that stuff.

[riojimmy]

I'm at a loss here, if I implement this, it wouldn't return the users email address as the From address.

it would show our email address?

[drew010]

you can specify any address there that you want, yours or theirs

[riojimmy]

Ok, I set it as so:

mail("[e-mail]", $subject, $msg, "From: $email", "-f$email");

is this correct?
The mail was sent but the From field still reflects our
domain name and server.

From: "printnml.com" <[e-mail]>

[drew010]

yeah thats how to do it. is this on windows? or linux? see also if you could tell the host to change their setup so it allows you to specify the sender.

[riojimmy]

Linux

I looked at the php ini setup (phpinfo)

for:
local value master value

sendmail_from no value no value

is the setting.

[drew010]

yeah the sendmail from only applies to windows, i think the setting is in the mta config file, exim, qmail or whatever they use.

[riojimmy]

I have these scripts also running on another site at a different host and I checked the php settings there, because I have no problems with sendmail with them

the local and master values are:
sendmail_from [e-mail] [e-mail]

I also realized a mistake I made in describing the situation
I have the problem whether sending html email or not.

So I will try to get them to change the settings for the sendmail_from.

thank you Drew010

[EltonSmith]

I am getting the same error in php sending email. Affinity (Gate.com) tells me "Due to our server configuration, mail sent from the server may not have the from field modified". Are they telling the truth? Did you ever find a workaround for the problem? This is really irritating.

Elton
[e-mail]

[riojimmy]

Sorry Elton, No.
I'm only using that server for mail that I don't care about not seeing the email senders email in the from line.

It does work in the reply-to field though
if you set
$headers .= "Reply-to: <$foo>\r\n";
your reply-to will have their email address.

If enough people gripe about it Valueweb eventually changes though.
Like the upload_max_filesize
was changed to 40M from 8m

as for mail that I need to see addresses when viewing in a email client I redirect them to another host server that does define the sendmail_from field for PHP
(that is godaddy.com)

Sorry, chin up
Jim

[riojimmy]

I forgot one thing

I put the from email person in the subject line

$subject = "$FirstName $LastName has blah-blahed to our Server";

with their name (or email, or id number) in the subject line one can manage
them easier.