PHP mail with gmail > edit "from email address"?

[skyhrg]

Hi,

I managed to set up a simple smtp with sendmail and gmail in the PHP mail function. The thing is, is it possible to change the "from" email address to a different one, than the gmail account I'm using?

No matter which $from I assign, the from address is always my gmail account, which I am using to send mails.

Thanks

[traq]

skyhrg;11029835 wrote:

No matter which $from I assign, the from address is always my gmail account, which I am using to send mails.

...which is as it should be, since that it the email address the email is "From."

What are you trying to accomplish? Why do you need to change the "from" address?

[skyhrg]

traq;11029843 wrote:

...which is as it should be, since that it the email address the email is "From."

What are you trying to accomplish? Why do you need to change the "from" address?

Whether I use gmail's smtp or not, is it possible to edit the "from address" to my choosing? In hindsight I guess this sounds suspicious, but I am reading "Head First PHP" and in the first chapters, they're making an emailing script where a client fills out a form with his email address being one of the data, and the form's data will be sent to my email address.

So the email should be structured with the client's email address as the "from address", the content in the subject and body, and the whole email being sent to me. But since the script's smtp is set up with gmail, the "from address" is set up as my own email address. It's not a big deal but I'm just wondering whether a solution exists, possibly with gmail, mercury, whatever, etc.

[bradgrafelman]

traq;11029843 wrote:

...which is as it should be, since that it the email address the email is "From."

Not necessarily. The "Sender" header should definitely be the original Gmail address, since that is who is "sending" the message, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's who the message is "from."

This mirrors formalities in real-world letter writing; the title and signature of who the message is "from" can be augmented with the initials of the assistant/secretary/aid who actually prepared the message (a.k.a. the "sender").

skyhrg;11029845 wrote:

Whether I use gmail's smtp or not, is it possible to edit the "from address" to my choosing?

Hopefully the above explanation provides some insight on what you'll need to do; try specifying the "Sender" header as your Gmail address (because to do otherwise would be forgery) and specifying the user's address as the "From" address.

Also, how are you attempting to set the address? The PHP manual page for the [man]mail/man function suggests that the "additional_parameters" parameter might be necessary depending upon your MTA (and/or its configuration).

[sneakyimp]

You might consider adding a reply-to header so that replies go to someone other than the From address. You may not have much control over the From header depending on the behavior of the mail server that you are talking to. Also, trying to change the From value in your email to something other than the address from which is actually being sent might result in your mail being blocked because it looks spammy. Changing the From value is a way that spammers try to conceal themselves.

[skyhrg]

sneakyimp;11029851 wrote:

You might consider adding a reply-to header so that replies go to someone other than the From address. You may not have much control over the From header depending on the behavior of the mail server that you are talking to. Also, trying to change the From value in your email to something other than the address from which is actually being sent might result in your mail being blocked because it looks spammy. Changing the From value is a way that spammers try to conceal themselves.

I tried the "Reply-To:" header, and the email doesn't send with gmail's smtp. I don't think there is any way to reliably do it with gmail's smtp. Again, it's not a big deal but I think I've seen this type of thing before. I don't think concealing the true from email address is possible with gmail.

[sneakyimp]

skyhrg;11029861 wrote:

I tried the "Reply-To:" header, and the email doesn't send with gmail's smtp. I don't think there is any way to reliably do it with gmail's smtp. Again, it's not a big deal but I think I've seen this type of thing before. I don't think concealing the true from email address is possible with gmail.

I would not be surprised if this were the case. Why would you ever want to conceal the real sender?

If you would like to prevent users from replying to the email, you could always create a new gmail account (e.g., [e-mail]) and then login to that account on gmail and set up a filter to put all incoming mail into the trash.