Replacement for PHP mail() method? - php

Question

I'm trying to set up a web site on a (shared) web hosting account. And I'm facing an issue with the mail() method. The site has a contact form where a user can submit their feedback:
Name: _____________
Email: ____________
Message: __________
So I was using the mail() method as such to send it as an email to my own account:
if(mail("mysitecustomerfeedback#hotmail.com",
"Customer message",
$message,
"From: $name <$email>\r\n".
"Reply-To: $name <$email>\r\n".
"X-Mailer: PHP/".phpversion()) === true)
{
$messageWasSent = true;
}
So when I try it, the email is dispatched, but there are several issues with it.
For instance, for my test I provided my actual email, say, johndoe#hotmail.com but when the email is received in my mysitecustomerfeedback#hotmail.com Hotmail account, the from email field is filled out with the default email on the shared hosting server, or something like web-user234#server875.web-hosting.com and not johndoe#hotmail.com as I would expect it to be.
Also the email was automatically placed into Junk by Hotmail, even though it contained no attachments, images, or anything. It was a plain text message.
Here's a screenshot:
So I understand that this shared hosting company doesn't want me to send spam using mail() method, but how else can I send these emails off my web site? Is there a replacement method for mail()?

Answer 1

You can use PHPMailer.
Example:
$mail = new PHPMailer;
$mail->isSMTP();
// You can use the SMTP host/auth details
// supplied by your personal email provider.
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Host = 'smtp.example.com';
$mail->Username = 'myUsername';
$mail->Password = 'myPassword';
$mail->setFrom('my#example.com');
$mail->addAddress('to#example.com');
$mail->Subject = 'A subject.';
$mail->Body = 'A message.';
$mail->send();
Since you authenticate with hotmail/gmail or whichever email server you use, the recipient will receive the email just as if you sent it using your favourite email client (this is a PHP email client).