How do I send an email through SMTP? - php

Question

I need to send an email to a new user and myself when they register an account. I need to know how to it send through my admin email instead of the weird email address that the GoDaddy server uses to send it.
Here's my PHP code:
<?php
require_once('recaptchalib.php');
$privatekey = "privatekey";
$resp = recaptcha_check_answer ($privatekey,
$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"],
$_POST["recaptcha_challenge_field"],
$_POST["recaptcha_response_field"]);
if (!$resp->is_valid) {
die ("reCAPTCHA was wrong, try again!");
} else {
mysql_connect("host", "username", "password");
mysql_select_db("database");
$hash = sha1(rand (0,1000) );
$name = $_POST['name'];
$bmonth = $_POST['month'];
$bday = $_POST['day'];
$byear = $_POST['year'];
$sq = $_POST['security_q'];
$sq_ans = sha1($_POST['security_q_ans']);
$email = $_POST['email'];
$pass = sha1($_POST['pass']);
$insert_query = "INSERT INTO users (account_act_hash, name, bmonth, bday, byear, securityq, securityq_ans, email, password) VALUES ('$hash','$name','$bmonth','$bday','$byear','$sq','$sq_ans','$email','$pass')";
$insertion_result = mysql_query($insert_query);
if($insertion_result) {
$to = "my admin email";
$subject = "New account created";
$name = $_POST['name'];
$bmonth = $_POST['month'];
$bday = $_POST['day'];
$byear = $_POST['year'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$message = 'EMAIL
Here is the account info.
Name: $name
Birthday: $bmonth-$bday-$byear
Email: $email
Registration IP Address: $ip
'
$header = "A new account has been created.";
}
if($_POST){
mail($to, $subject, $message, $header);
}
}
?>
<?php
$to2 = $_POST['email'];
$subject2 = "Activate Your Account";
$email2 = $_POST['email'];
$message2 = '
Thanks for registering an account!
Your account has been created and can be used when you activate your account by clicking the below link!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email: '.$email2.'
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please click this link to activate your account:
https://www.mysite.com/activation.php?email='.$email2.'&account_act_hash='.$hash.'
';
if($_POST) {
mail($to2, $subject2, $message2);
}
?>

Answer 1

Directly from the mail doc page you need to specify from in the header:
// Additional headers
$headers .= 'From: Birthday Reminder <birthday#example.com>' . "\r\n";
You are getting a _ weird email address_ because you have not specified who the email should be coming from.
You have a bunch of additional problems:
HEREDOC
I'm assuming this is what you were trying to do
$message = <<<EMAIL
Here is the account info.
Name: $name
Birthday: $bmonth-$bday-$byear
Email: $email
Registration IP Address: $ip
EMAIL;
MySQL
mysql_* functions are deprecated, read the read box.
This will also lead to don't trust user input, prepared statements are going to be your friend.
Misc
When using double quotes, use curly braces with your variables:
$foo = 'test';
echo "This a {$foo}!"; // This is a test!
In this case die(), is a very harsh way to end a script in terms of user experience.