PHP script won't send mail to COMCAST

[agon024]

Here is my script:

<?php 
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {

$to = "[e-mail]";
$referers = array ('www.mydomain.com','ip.add.re.ss','localhost');
$title = "This is a Message from Me"; 
$subject = $_POST['subject']; 
$name_field = $_POST['name'];                

$phone_field = $_POST['phone']; 
$email_field = $_POST['email'];                           

$message = $_POST['message'];
$body = "$title \nFrom: $name_field \nE-Mail: $email_field \nPhone Number: $phone \nMessage: $message";
$headers = "From: " .  $_POST['email']; 
$success = mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);
}
if ($success){
  print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=form_complete.htm\">";

} else {

echo "Sorry error please try again..."; 

}
?>

When I change the email to one of my many other addresses it sends just fine but not with comcast. Now when I remove the line

$headers = "From: " .  $_POST['email']; 

it will send to the comcast address fine. The reason I have that line in there is so that when the e-mail arrives to the client in the from column it will show their address and when the hit reply it will reply to the email that was specified in the HTML e-mail field.

So here is the header info from the e-mail to a NON COMCAST address with the $header line PRESENT:

Return-path: <[e-mail]>
Envelope-to: [e-mail]
Delivery-date: Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:35:36 -0600
Received: from USER by sclass.websitewelcome.com with local (Exim 4.80)
	(envelope-from <[e-mail]>)
	id 1TnutE-0004pN-IG
	for [e-mail]; Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:35:36 -0600
To: [e-mail]
Subject: asdf
X-PHP-Script: clientdomain.com/contact/contact.php for 24.20.90.100
From: [e-mail]
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:35:36 -0600

And here is the header info from the e-mail TO A COMCAST address with the $header line REMOVED:

Return-Path: [e-mail]
Received: from imta37.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net (LHLO
 imta37.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net) (76.96.62.97) by
 sz0126.ev.mail.comcast.net with LMTP; Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:41:36 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from gateway16.websitewelcome.com ([69.93.82.10])
	by imta37.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net with comcast
	id gHhb1k04i0DMimV0cHhbvp; Wed, 26 Dec 2012 17:41:36 +0000
X-CAA-SPAM: F00000
X-Authority-Analysis: v=2.1 cv=JcQEGi6V c=1 sm=1 tr=0
 a=sgWM/mvALiMyOJTFXGCTww==:117 a=sgWM/mvALiMyOJTFXGCTww==:17 a=8FReB3YSAAAA:8
 a=C_IRinGWAAAA:8 a=aH79pbpk914A:10 a=pRoFs2FcJPIA:10 a=vvU9AP6GoT3t0zE08ucA:9
 a=VjdX41NSM4e9OE0V:21 a=b6eaiNkE2pqyrkpt:21 a=RjyaPFtIRPQA:10
Received: by gateway16.websitewelcome.com (Postfix, from userid 5007)
	id 6BFD9D1DB8BC1; Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:41:20 -0600 (CST)
Received: from sclass.websitewelcome.com (unknown [50.97.96.102])
	by gateway16.websitewelcome.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5E28FD1DB8BA1
	for <[e-mail]>; Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:41:20 -0600 (CST)
Received: from USER by sclass.websitewelcome.com with local (Exim 4.80)
	(envelope-from <[e-mail]>)
	id 1Tnuz1-0001wY-JH
	for [e-mail]; Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:41:35 -0600
To: [e-mail]
Subject: asdf
X-PHP-Script: clientdomain.com/contact/contact.php for my.ip.add.ress
Message-Id: <[e-mail]>
From: [e-mail]
Date: Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:41:35 -0600
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - sclass.websitewelcome.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - comcast.net
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [3232 32007] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - sclass.websitewelcome.com
X-BWhitelist: no
X-Source: /usr/bin/php
X-Source-Args: /usr/bin/php /home/USER/public_html/contact/contact.php 
X-Source-Dir: clientdomain.com:/public_html/contact
X-Source-Sender: 
X-Source-Auth: USER
X-Email-Count: 2
X-Source-Cap: ZGlzdHJpY3Q7YWdvbjAyNDtzY2xhc3Mud2Vic2l0ZXdlbGNvbWUuY29t

The "sclass.websitewelcome.com" is because I have hostgator reseller account so that is to hide from the clients that it is hostgator instead of my company. 🙂

So is there a header i can add or different way of having the e-mail address show up in the from column and have it auto insert the address when the client hits the reply button?

Sorry for the long code I just wanted to be thorough. I have been battling this for while and cant figure it out. '

Thanks in advance for any help,
Agon

[bradgrafelman]

Setting a 'From' header with an e-mail address that doesn't reside on the domain from which your mailserver is allowed to send mail, then you are commiting electronic forgery (kudos to Comcast for rejecting such forgery). If you want the 'From' address to be a user-supplied value (not a great idea), you should at least include a 'Sender' header that points to an address on your domain.

agon024;11021177 wrote:

The reason I have that line in there is so that when the e-mail arrives to the client in the from column it will show their address and when the hit reply it will reply to the email that was specified in the HTML e-mail field.

But the message didn't really originate from the user's mailbox - it came from yours. If you want replies to go to the user, then you should be using the Reply-To header for that.

[agon024]

kudos to Comcast for rejecting such forgery??? They are the only mail servers I have come across doing this.

But what your saying is to remove

$headers = "From: " .  $_POST['email'];

and add say (which I have already done multiple times)

$headers = "Reply-to: " .  $_POST['email']; 

because if that is the case then I am still "commiting electronic forgery" as you put it 🙂 because Comcast still blocks the email and no one else does. 😕

And how do I get to show something other that "[e-mail]" in the from column in on the clients end? I am confused with this so anymore help you can give me bradgrafelman is greatly appreciated.

thanks

[Weedpacket]

bradgrafelman did suggest you include a "Sender:" header...

[agon024]

I should have stated before that I did include a "sender:" header and it did nothing. Maybe I did something wrong though. I am not an expert at PHP(Which is why I am here).

Here is what I added:

$headers = "Sender: [e-mail] \r\n";
$headers .= "Reply-to: " .  $_POST['email'];

It did not send to the comcast address until I removed the "Reply-to:" line.

Can someone maybe give me some code that will work. There has to be a way to get comcast to accept it with the proper $headers. I am just not to familiar with headers.

Thanks,
Agon

[sneakyimp]

Anyone who deals with a mail server knows that it's really difficult to prevent spam from arriving. You can hardly blame them. Sadly, the bazillions of spam mails out there mean that it can be very difficult to get legitimate mail delivered. Follow carefully what BG said (he's very detail-oriented) and don't assume that you shouldn't have all those headers: sender, reply-to, from, etc. And also don't be surprised if the presence of one of those headers pisses off some other mail gateway. I've had mail rejected by the Amazon SES mail gateway because the mail I created had a header that was not recognized or that the mail gateway didn't like. Mail today is a terrible mess.

And you are part of the problem. See how you put $POST['email'] directly into $headers? This means your script is vulnerable to Email Header Injection -- this means that spammers can use your script to send mail to anyone they like by putting a newline character in $POST['email'] and then appending a cc or bcc or whatever they like which could include an infinite list of spam recipients.

You might have better luck avoiding the mail command and instead using PHPMailer or PEAR::Mail instead -- this would cause your script to connect to a mail gateway (e.g., gmail or some other mail server of your choosing) and send email by logging in with legitimate credentials. It would be a bit slower, but your mail would probably get through.

[agon024]

K. So I took your advice and went to using pear.

Here is my code:

<?php

   require_once "Mail.php";

    $from = "My Site <[e-mail]>";
    $to = "My Name <[e-mail]>";
    $subject = $_POST['subject'];
$title = "This is a Message from MY SITE";
$name_field = $_POST['name'];                
$phone_field = $_POST['phone']; 
$email_field = $_POST['email'];                           
$message = $_POST['message'];
$body = "$title \n\nFrom: $name_field \nE-Mail: $email_field \nPhone Number: $phone \nMessage: $message";

    $host = "mail.mysite.com";
    $port = "25";
    $username = "[e-mail]";  //<> give errors
    $password = "password";

    $headers = array (
  'From' => $from,
      'To' => $to,
      'Subject' => $subject);
    $smtp = Mail::factory('smtp',
      array ('host' => $host,
        'port' => $port,
        'auth' => true,
        'username' => $username,
        'password' => $password));

    $mail = $smtp->send($to, $headers, $body);

    if (PEAR::isError($mail)) {
      echo("<p>" . $mail->getMessage() . "</p>");
     } else {
      print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=form_complete.htm\">";
     }

?>

This Works. And Sends. But when you hit reply it want to send the reply email to [e-mail] (obviously).

Once I add 'Reply-To' => $email_field, in the header section it will no longer send to Comcast. I need this to be able to have the Reply-To address to be the one specified in the form e-mail field. How can I do that.

[sneakyimp]

It sounds to me like Comcast's spam filters don't like it when your From address differs from a Reply-to address. Perhaps you should use Sender instead of From? Another possibility is that your domain lacks an SPF record or Domain Keys to reassure Comcast that the server running this PHP script is a legit source of mail for the domain mysite.com. I have found that adding an SPF record to your domain's DNS records really improves mail deliverability.

I know this might sound like a pain -- it's just a simple email, right? -- but you have to keep in mind how much of a scourge spam is these days. I'm a member of numerous forums and about half of them get high spam scores for legitimate emails related to posts I've made. No matter what I do, these notifications still end up in the junk folder (dd-wrt.com, phpbb.com, etc.). Knowing how to get your mail delivered is an important skill for an advanced programmer. Surprisingly few people know how to do it -- and it's not really that hard once you manage to get it right once. Just remember to save the PHP code you wrote that resulted in proper delivery and re-use it everywhere else.

[sneakyimp]

Another thing: you don't have to use an email address at mysite.com when you are using PEAR mail. You could just as easily send via gmail. This still doesn't guarantee your mail will get through. You have to be careful about your headers or you'll risk triggering some kind of spam filter.

[agon024]

SWEET!!

I Changed it to Gmail settings and its works. I can specify a Reply-To and it will send to a comcast e-mail address. 🙂

But not with the domain specifed as the host with the host credentials. But I will just use it this way. No problem for me.

Thanks for all your help guys especially you sneakyimp. I know I am not the only one having this problem and other people are sure to encounter this so hopefully this thread will help.

[sneakyimp]

agon024;11022053 wrote:

SWEET!!

I Changed it to Gmail settings and its works. I can specify a Reply-To and it will send to a comcast e-mail address. 🙂

It sounds to me like maybe Comcast doesn't mind the Reply-to address and it is instead your domain's reputation and/or DNS settings (probably without SPF record) that caused your mail to get filtered. You might want to take a good look at the complete mail headers of the delivered mail and see if gmail changed them -- take note of who the Sender, From, Reply-To are, etc.

agon024;11022053 wrote:

But not with the domain specifed as the host with the host credentials. But I will just use it this way. No problem for me.

Keep in mind that the script will take longer to run if it must contact gmail to send mail. It's not connecting to your local server any more, it's connecting to google's servers. Sending mail this way is not suitable for sending large numbers of emails at once.

agon024;11022053 wrote:

Thanks for all your help guys especially you sneakyimp. I know I am not the only one having this problem and other people are sure to encounter this so hopefully this thread will help.

It would be great if you can keep your eyes peeled for other posts having mail trouble and chime in. There's a lot of really poor mail-handling behavior out there and it makes things harder for all of us.