PHP mail() returns true but doesn't work


Posted on 16th Feb 2014 07:03 pm by admin

First off I apologize if this is a newbie question, and I generally don't like asking questions that have already been asked 1,000,000 times, but I've searched far and wide and cannot find a solution to my problem.

Basically I run an experimental server on my home network. I use LAMP (Ubuntu Server, Apache2.2, MySQL5, PHP5).

Did you know?Explore Trending and Topic pages for more stories like this.
I simply want to take the data from an HTML form and submit it as an e-mail. I tried using the mail() function like this:
Code: $email = $_POST['email'];
$message = $_POST['message'];
$subject = $_POST['subject'];

$sentmail = mail("example@gmail.com",$subject,$message,"FROM: ".$email."rn");
if($sentmail) {
echo 'Your message has been sent!';
} else {
echo 'Cannot send message.';
}

After some googling, I found one solution that said to add this line:
Code: ini_set("sendmail_from", "example@gmail.com");but it made no difference.

I finally decided to try a different approach using SMTP:
Code: require_once "Mail.php";

$from = "Form Data <".$_POST['email'].">";
$to = "My Name <example@gmail.com>";
$subject = $_POST['subject'];
$body = $_POST['message'];

$host = "ssl://smtp.gmail.com";
$port = "465";
$username = "foo@gmail.com";
$password = "bar";

$headers = array ('From' => $from,
'To' => $to,
'Subject' => $subject);
$smtp = Mail::factory('smtp',
array ('host' => $host,
'port' => $port,
'auth' => true,
'username' => $username,
'password' => $password));

$mail = $smtp->send($to, $headers, $body);

if (PEAR::isError($mail)) {
echo("<p>" . $mail->getMessage() . "</p>");
} else {
echo("<p>Message successfully sent!</p>");
}

Still not working!

This is quite frustrating. It always returns a value of "true" but never actually sends the messages!

Maybe it would help if I had a better understanding of what the mail() function actually does. Where does the message go when handled by mail()? Mustn't it go through a mail server at some point? Port 25 is iffy on my setup, so that could be the issue with mail().

When using the PEAR method though, I specifically indicate port 465, so that can't be the issue.

What am I missing here?
No comments posted yet

Your Answer:

Login to answer
314 Like 21 Dislike
Previous forums Next forums
Other forums

Must-Know Topics of PHP
Can you guys list the must-know topics of PHP. I am still a learner and I am trying to cover most of

Is it possible to stop reservation creation in PM Order?
Hi All,

Is it possible to stop reservation creation in PM Order?

Thanks in adv

ereg_replace issue
hi there people

i have this code happening with regards to my wamp server. is this something

php wont update my db
hello,

sorry for posting in mysql forum but i dont know where exactly is the problem but here

difference between datetimes
($row['totime']-$row['fromtime'])/60

this is giving me 0

example of totime and fromtim

Nested (echoed) php running wrong script
Got a problem with a php website I'm creating.

In a nutshell, the first page is entirely html

What is SAP Avatar ?
Hi All,

This G.Satish , my boss asked me to explore on SAP Avatar. I searced in internet

How to add advertisment on top of videos
Hello,
I was told that i should find the answer for this problem in this forums.
I searched a

Coding question?
Hey guys, I have a quick question. If I want to make a way for people to pay for health in my game,

Force download script not handling files with spaces properly
I have a regular old php force download script, uses this code:

Code: header("Cache-Cont

Sign up to write
Sign up now if you have flare of writing..
Login   |   Register
Follow Us
Indyaspeak @ Facebook Indyaspeak @ Twitter Indyaspeak @ Pinterest RSS



Play Free Quiz and Win Cash