send email from xampp? mercury mail server? relay mail server? - php

Question

I have been researching this topic as i have been having some difficulties send email using my php script. When i execute my contactform.php it executes send_form_email.php and that basically says the email has been sent. There is nothing wrong with my scripts since i had a friend that is code test it on his server he was able to submit the form and generate an email.
So now i went through the steps of configuring the sendmail.ini and the php.ini i believe i am configuring it right according to online tutorials. I have also tested this on my aws server which is on the internet and has disabled the firewall so all ports are open and still unable to send the email through my php scripts. I will post the example of what i am using to configure my .ini files.
So now i am left with creating an mail server. Not too sure of what my options are. I was thinking a relay mail server that would take on the work load and i would not need to go through the hassle of deploying a mail server. Then i have Mercury on the xampp to configure but cannot find a decent tutorial out there that can help me. So i am here asking for professional advice how should i tackle this issue. In my gmail i have enabled everything so all traffic using pop3, imap, and smtp can send and receive just not too sure what i can do. I have never deployed an email server so i am looking for something very easy to use. This is for a small project that i am going to end up doing away with.
https://shellcreeper.com/enable-send-email-in-xampp/
php.ini from:
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/smtp
SMTP = localhost
; http://php.net/smtp-port
smtp_port = 25
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/sendmail-from
;sendmail_from = postmaster#localhost
; For Unix only. You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
; http://php.net/sendmail-path
;sendmail_path = "\"\XAMPP\sendmail\sendmail.exe\" -t"
To:
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/smtp
SMTP = smtp.gmail.com
; http://php.net/smtp-port
smtp_port = 587
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/sendmail-from
sendmail_from = {your gmail username}#gmail.com
; For Unix only. You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
; http://php.net/sendmail-path
sendmail_path = "\"\XAMPP\sendmail\sendmail.exe\" -t"
Sendmail.ini
from:
smtp_server=localhost
smtp_port=25
to:
;smtp_server=localhost
;smtp_port=25
and add this in the bottom of your sendmail,ini:
;new config:
smtp_server=smtp.gmail.com
smtp_port=587
smtp_ssl=tls
error_logfile=error.log
pop3_server=
pop3_username=
pop3_password=
force_recipient=
hostname=
auth_username={your gmail username}#gmail.com
auth_password={your gmail password}
force_sender={your gmail username}#gmail.com

Answer 1

You could try an SMTP for the time being and use Google mail to send emails.... Here's information on setting it up:
SMTP server (i.e., outgoing mail): smtp.gmail.com
SMTP username: Your full Gmail or Google Apps email address (e.g. example#gmail.com or example#yourdomain.com)
SMTP password: Your Gmail or Google Apps email password
SMTP port: 465
SMTP TLS/SSL required: yes
In order to store a copy of outgoing emails in your Gmail or Google Apps Sent folder, log into your Gmail or Google Apps email Settings and:
Click on the Forwarding/IMAP tab and scroll down to the IMAP Access section: IMAP must be enabled in order for emails to be properly copied to your sent folder.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-google-s-smtp-server