[zaon]

Thanks, ALcorn :-)

Also, I rechecked and google mail does indeed require TSL/SSL for outgoing SMTP connections and there's no way around that.

Google tells me this shouldn't be a problem because ALL current mail clients in the world, no matter how obscure, have a setting for TSL (sometimes called 'SSL') for both incoming and outgoing mail sending. So, there must be a way for our Linux/PHP server to send that way, right?

Or, is this SMTP function proprietary to vbulletin, being Jelsoft's hand-made mail-sending code that bypasses normal protocol and only contains the capabilities Jelsoft's programmers have chosen to include?

Thanks for any clarification y'all can offer! :-)