I'm using PHPMailer and having a hard time getting isSMTP on bluehost to work. I have been able to get isMail to work and am wondering what the difference is in sending mail. Also, it seems that I'm getting a HELO or authentication error when trying to use isSMTP but bluehost says my setting are correct. I'm using SSL and port 465.
isMail and isSMTP are convenience methods to set the value of PHPMailer's Mailer property. This property determines how PHPMailer goes about sending a message after it has built it. With isMail, it's sent using PHP"s mail function. With isSMTP, it uses PHPMailer's accompanying SMTP class to act as an SMTP client, talking to a mail server directly.
Using the mail function requires that you have a mail server installed and running on your local machine - which, historically at least, has not been the case with Windows in particular. Generally using the mail function is fairly fast because it does not need to talk to a remote host, however, it's quite inefficient given that it actually acts as a front to the system's own sendmail binary, which simply opens a synchronous SMTP connection to localhost. You'll also get much less feedback - the mail function returns boolean value, so if it doesn't work it's hard to tell why it failed, and you will probably need to look in your mail server's logs to find out.
You can use the SMTP route to send to either local or remote mail servers, and typically SMTP to localhost is the fastest way to send. Because PHPMailer uses its own SMTP client to do this, it means it can see the whole SMTP conversation, and thus gets much better feedback when things don't work - you can set SMTPDebug = 2 and see the whole conversation.
There are various thngs that can go wrong, and the best place to track down the root cause is to read the PHPMailer troubleshooting guide.
Related
I have a "lesser of two evils" quandary. The site I'm working on doesn't have SSL. So, I'm getting the SMTP issues described here: https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting#php-56-certificate-verification-failure
So, the options seem to be...
Using the php mail() function via PHPMailer by NOT using the built-in $mail->isSMTP(); part of PHPMailer.
Going with the "less secure way" of sending SMTP mail as described in the link above.
Can someone who knows about this sort of thing weigh in with pros/cons of either route? Thanks.
Those two are not the only options. Figure out why the certificate is failing to verify using the tests shown in the guide.
PHPMailer will use encryption if either a) you ask it to, or b) if your server says it supports it, in which case it's enabled automatically.
If your server is presenting a self-signed or expired cert, it will fail to verify - you can either get a real cert, tell your mail server to stop advertising encryption if it's not configured, or tell PHPMailer not to use encryption at all by setting SMTPSecure = false and SMTPAutoTLS = false.
Not using isSMTP isn't any more secure - all that happens is the same connection happens from your local mail server, where it may (depending on your mail server's settings) face exactly the same issue.
I'm getting a 'could not instantiate mail function' error from PHPMailer. From reading around, I understand this to mean that the PHP mail() function isn't working for some reason.
The results of phpinfo() for the mail settings are:
To me, this means that mail() should work and that port 25 is open. Is that right?
Is there anything else I can check to make this work please? I had a look at the docs for the mail() function, but I couldn't see what exceptions it threw and how I'd print them out to screen. I did a:
mail('name#email.com', "test", "test") or die("Doesn't work");
type test, but that's my error message and I could do with something a bit more helpful.
Grateful for any help on this.
Many thanks
it doesn't mean port 25 is open, it just means that PHP should use port 25 for contacting the SMTP server. You don't state what OS you're on, but note that sendmail would be a unix-only thing, and will fail if you're on Windows.
That list merely show you your current settings. That doesn't mean that they are right. :)
Your localhost is probably not configured to be a mail server. Set the smtp server to a real server than can be reached from your PHP server.
I am probably way off, but check to see if sendmail is installed, maybe it is malfunctioning. This depends on your OS.
The settings from phpinfo() show the PHP is set up to use SMTP but it does not mean that you have an SMTP server set up on the machine. Your error message suggests that one is not setup.
Good luck
My answer would be - don't send emails by calling Sendmail. The sendmail method (or ANY local method) is a mess of pitfalls... and even if you get past those issues, the bottom line is many spam filters (at the places you send mail TO) simply do not like this type of mail.
To provide just a little detail why the sendmail approach is bad, your sendmail daemon is unlikely to be configured to have an SMTP HELO which matches the reverse DNS of your IP address. Your webserver is unlikely to have valid reverse DNS matching a standard hostname. NO reverse DNS at all is bad, as is rdns like 123-123-123-123-static.someisp.com. SpamAssassing will flag such "unconfigured or default reverse DNS" hosts for example.
Fortunately you don't need to understand or fix everything I just said. The much simpler to accomplish (and easier to test/debug) is to GATEWAY your emails through a working SMTP mailserver. To do this:
1a) Install PHPMailer http://phpmailer.worxware.com/ ... OR
1b) Install the PEAR Mail() library http://pear.php.net/package/Mail
Either 1a or 1b will replace the limited "mail()" function in PHP. These replacements support both SMTP, and Authenticated SMTP.
2) I suggest using Authenticated SMTP over plain SMTP. Either works, but with authenticated SMTP you can literally send mail through another mail server just as IF your script were a local email client like Outlook. This has major benefits. For example, if you are a company sending mail, your mail is more likely to be trusted by remote/target mailservers, since your mailserver has a good reputation and (hopefully) proper reverse DNS setup. But if you originate the email off a webserver, you have none of that (and if you use shared webhosting, you will inherit the email reputation of whatever other sites run on your webserver IP.).
I'm building a site on my home computer using MAMP. The code I'm using employs the PHP mail() function to send emails, but whenever I test it, the mails aren't getting sent.
My computer is connected to the net, but I'm wondering if there's something about local hosting that prevents mails from getting sent. I'm not getting any kind of error message.
Any ideas?
PHP can send mail in one of two ways.
The first, and the default on non-Windows systems, is to use the local mail transfer agent installed on the system. This would be "sendmail" or an application compatible with it, the most popular probably being postfix.
The other is to connect via SMTP to some mail server.
You will either need to install a mail transfer agent on your local system (and set it up correctly), or edit PHP's configuration to specify an SMTP server address and port.
Yes, there are things that could block locally hosted mail. For one, your ISP could block SMTP to servers other than the ISP. ask your ISP support if they block SMTP... Or try telexing so someone's MX port 25 and do you get a response?
If your ISP blocks smtp you can still send the mail, but first you must relay that email through a hosted email server like your ISP mail server. This process is called 'smart hosting' and you can search for more info.
Even if you are not blocked on port 25, many sites will refuse or lose smtp traffic that originates from a dynamic or residential IP address, so again the smart host suggestion.
Also I suggest not using the built in mail() function in PHP... Use something that replaces and improves it like http://pear.php.net/package/Mail or http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmailer/. Again, use the SMTP method as it is way more reliable than direct sending or calling Sendmail.
It is important to confirm this problem, doing SMTP manually over telnet. That way you isolate the problem from PHP. I did ISP support for years and saw this question lots. Most people setup php and mail correctly but get stuck on a background network issue with SMTP.
If you have Wireshark installed, it can record network traffic and you might see the actual SMTP traffic, for example the remote server may be refusing your connection. Wireshark is helpful but not required to solve this though. Good luck.
You need to setup SMTP server in order to be able use mail function, or you can use PHPMailer class, with it you can avoid using mail function and setup problems, PHPMailler need socket extension to be loaded in order to function correctly.
I know this is possible, but can I do without a remote SMTP server or the like? Basically I want to send mail with PHP, but without mail()
I'm unsure what you exactly mean with 'without a remote SMTP server', as in any mail delivery at least one of those has to be involved - the one receiving mail on account of the recipient...
What you can probably do (it's up to you to decide if it's worth the effort) is to use PHP's socket functions to open a connection on port 25 with a remote mail server. Google 'SMTP telnet' for some examples of how a SMTP session looks like (quite simple, to be true) and then google for 'SMTP codes' for more explanations of what the remote server is saying you.
Possible, but not entirely trivial considering the fact that you should be familiar with SMTP, POP3 and/or IMAP to actually exchange data with a mail server.
You need to code your app so it mimics the behavior of an MTA, that is if you're going to do what the mail() function does - and using sockets. If you're on Linux, another option is to make an OS call to sendmail.
To not use mail() look into PHPMailer
I use this library for all my e-mailing code. I've extended it to have a debug mode so I can intercept outgoing e-mails while testing code.
I could be wrong but you will always be using an SMTP server even if that server is just the webserver with sendmail on it. If you were running your PHP on windows you'd need to enable IIS's in built SMTP service.
I need to send a newsletter to several thousands of subscribers with PHP.
The hosting service I am using allows me to send 300 mails/hour tops with their SMTP server.
They told me that if I send email with PHP without authenticating or using the SMTP server I won't have any problems with limits.
Is that even possible? Doesn't the mail() function in PHP use SMTP to send mail?
The mail() function will use whatever php.ini tells it to use which may be sendmail or may be an external SMTP server.
You have a few different options:
If they're not time sensitive, use their SMTP server and throttle yourself;
Alternatively, if they are time sensitive, it may make sense to authenticate against your own external SMTP server;
Finally, I'd suggest looking at a system like MailChimp or iContact. They'll let you send to anyone on your list and will handle bounces and unsubscribes for you. Even better, their servers have been whitelisted by ISPs, etc, so you're much less likely to have your messages flagged as spam.
My 0.02
On unix/linux, mail() is almost always configured to just use the local sendmail facility.
Technically speaking, you're still using SMTP servers, but not at your ISP. Sendmail communicates directly with the SMTP server responsible for incoming mail for each recipient.
While it's possible that your host has sendmail to route all mail through their SMTP server, it's unlikely.
I'd say just use plain old mail() and give it a shot.
The hosting company probably provides you with a SMTP server you can use, and it is that server that probably has the limitation. You can avoid the limitation by using another SMTP server (one that they aren't providing.)
All e-mail is traditionally "sent" using SMTP. You would need to configure your machine to use an external server.
http://email.about.com/od/emailprogrammingtips/qt/Configure_PHP_to_Use_a_Remote_SMTP_Server_for_Sending_Mail.htm
For a good general discussion of successfully sending e-mails from code, see this Coding Horror post. I noticed one of the comments mentioned the Postmark app as a paid alternative to using your ISP's SMTP server. I've never used it, so I don't know if it's worth the price.