why wont the mail() function work

[chrisgm187]

even when i use the script of the faq pages and change the $to to my email address the if statment says the mail is sent but it dose not arrive in my inbox.

I am using php version 4.4.4 on a remote server so I am pritty sure it is not a config problem. Is they some thing obvious I am missing

[bpat1434]

Did you check your spam box or Junk folder? Many of the mail() emails are redirected there just because it's an easy SPAM exploit with certain scripts.

[chrisgm187]

Thats what i first hoped but no such luck

[contrasites]

can you paste your code here, there could be several reasons why you're not getting the mail and it won't necessarily show up as an error.

[chrisgm187]

<form action="mail.php" method="post">

<p>Name:
<input type="text" name="name" size="20"
maxlength="40" />
</p>
<p>Email :
<input type="text" name="email" size="20"
maxlength="60" />
</p>
</p>
<p><b>Details:</b>
<textarea name="details" rows="3" cols="20"></textarea></p>
<div>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />
</div>

</form>

//mail.php

<?php

$mes = $POST['details'];
$to = '[e-mail]';
$sub = 'call back';
$headers = "From: ".$POST['email']."\r\n";
$mail = mail($to,$sub,$mes,$headers);

if(!$mail){
echo "Email not sent! Please try later...";
}else{
echo "Mail sent successfully!";
}
?>

[contrasites]

You didn't have your mail headers set correctly, this code will work but you will have to change the action attribute to mail.php

<form action="<?php $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] ?>" method="post">

<p>Name:
<input type="text" name="name" size="20"
maxlength="40" />
</p>
<p>Email :
<input type="text" name="email" size="20"
maxlength="60" />
</p>
</p>
<p><b>Details:</b>
<textarea name="details" rows="3" cols="20"></textarea></p>
<div>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" />
</div>

</form>
<?php

if(isset($_POST['submit'])){

$to = '[e-mail]';
$subject = 'the subject';
$message = $_POST['details'];
$headers = 'From: [e-mail]' . "\r\n" .
'Reply-To: [e-mail]' . "\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();

$mailSent = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

if($mailSent){
echo "Your mail has been sent!";
}else{
echo "Mail did not send please try again or contact [e-mail] for help!";
}
}
?>

[MarkR]

You really need to take this up with your systems manager - their MTA logs and bounces should make it evident what the problem is.

If you are on shared hosting, whether any mail arrives or not to some destinations is pretty random, because you are probably sharing your hosting with a load of spammers (either deliberately or accidentally), hence its IP address will be on lots of blacklists.

I am assuming that if you log on and try to send messages from the shell, they also fail to arrive?

Mark

[contrasites]

My guess is that you didn't have all of your header information so when the mails were sent they were cast into the blackhole never to be seen from again.

When I tryed your script w/o editing it it worked partially meaning I did get an email but only the subject was listed, but as you can see your original script was missing the 'reply to' and 'x-mailer' info and this is probably identified as something fishy by your hosting and killed off.

[chrisgm187]

Hi

Still not working copied the code in and changed the action attribute to mail.php but still no joy. Any other suggestions

Cheers

[contrasites]

Try using a different email address it worked perfectly for mine.

Also copy the code as is and paste in a new file such as test.php for testing.