php send mail run around from my host

[erinch]

I have a new board I'm trying to launch. www.dminadventures.net/dminchat

I'm fairly handy with computer things, but am not a developer or a programmer and have met my match. I can't send emails out of the board, which MUST happen. I am posting below the text of the discussion from the vBulletin troubleshooting forum. Can anyone help me? Or do I need to try to switch hosts? Thanks, Erin Cox-Holmes

how to change mail send settings?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Erin to board:
Hi:
email notifications, etc. are not working on my new board.
I need to be able to change the mail send settings to scriptmail.intermedia.net

on www.dminadventures.net/dminchat

In doing a search on this board, it says I need to modfy php.ini--but I can't find if this is a file that I have access to, or if I need to contact intermedia (it's a shared server) and ask them to change it?

thanks for your assistance,
Erin Cox-Holmes


#2 Today, 5:14pm
Steve Machol
vBulletin Team
Support Manager Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Arizona
Age: 52
Posts: 62,711

Only your host can make changes to php.ini.


Steve Machol
#3 Today, 6:05pm
erinch
Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Age: 46
Posts: 32

thanks, Steve. You're going to recognize my name before long. that's not always a good thing

I emailed the information you provided to intermedia, my web host. Their response, and my subsequent response are pasted in below. Can you translate this for me, in terms of where I would put the script in the vBulletin files, or someplace else on my server? I can provide all my login info, but naturally don't want to do that on a public board. thanks, Erin

Interchange with webhost

Erin C-H:
I have configured a vBulletin board on the linux account which uses php as the function to send mail. Mail from the board is not working, and vBulletin says it's because php.ini needs to be modified for the sendmail function to read scriptmail.intermedia.net (the sending script you have provided at Intermedia) and that I need to ask the host to do this.

Intermedia: As a security feature of our Shared Environment, users do not have access to modify the global php.ini file, and PHP is also run in safe mode. We do provide two PHP mailer examples that we have tested and used on our Linux server, they can be found at:
Do you provide examples of CGI scripts for Apache on Linux?
http://intermedia.net/support/kb/vie...cle.asp?id=874 (Erin's note: when you go to that link they have php scripts as wel)

Erin: thank you, I did see the php mailer examples. But there are no instructions for how to implement them, or where to put them that I could find.

Intermedia:

Hello Erin,
Thank you for your message. They are like any other scripts, they should be placed in Htdocs (or any other directory under Htdocs) and can be called from other PHP or HTML files.

I have no idea what that means. (wishing I'd majored in computers as opposed to English and Religion back in the 70s) thanks, Erin

erinch

#4 Today, 6:08pm
Steve Machol

Sorry but I have no idea what they are telling you to do. vB uses PHP's mail() function for all its email and uses the SMTP server specified in php.ini. If PHP and the mail server are configured correctly then email will work. (This is certainly true of the overwhelming majority of web hosts.)

If vB emails are not working, then this is a server issue. You need to ask your host to fix this.


Steve Machol

#5 Today, 6:15pm
erinch
Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Age: 46
Posts: 32

thanks; I sent their support another email.


erinch
View Public Profile


#6 Today, 6:25pm
erinch
Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Age: 46
Posts: 32

Okay, Steve, back to vBulletin, I guess. Is there anyone in the vBulletin community who does understand scripts who might be willing to be hired to help me get this working? Do you know of anyone who has implemented a script based solution? thanks, Erin

Erin to intermedia: is this fixable on an intermedia linux account, or do I need to find a different host? I have no idea what you mean or how to call your php scripts from a php file for the discussion board (on my account under dminchat.) Nor do I have any idea what each of your scripts do, and which would be the better one.

Intermedia:

Hello Erin,
Thank you for your message.
As a sample, please see:
<!--
See following link for more details:
http://pear.php.net/manual/en/core.mail.smtp.php
-->
<!--
jsmith@domain1.com is the recipient's address that this message will go to
john@domain2.com,Lucy@domain3.com are the Carbon Copy addresses
joedoe-bcc@domain4.com is the Blind Carbon Copy address
-->
<?php
include('Mail.php');
$recipients = 'jsmith@domain1.com,john@domain2.com,Lucy@domain3. com,joedoe-bcc@domain4.com';
$headers['From'] = '"My company Corp" <alex@yourdomain.com>';
$headers['To'] = '"John Smith" <jsmith@domain1.com>';
$headers['Cc'] = '"John Brown" <john@domain2.com>, "Lucy Brown" <Lucy@domain3.com>';
$headers['Subject'] = 'test php message subject';
$body = 'Test php message body';
$params['host'] = 'scriptmail.intermedia.net';
$mail_object =& Mail::factory('smtp', $params);
if ( $mail_object->send($recipients, $headers, $body) ) {
echo "Mail was successfully sent";
}
else {
echo "Cannot send mail!";
}
?>
Notice the line that says: $params['host'] = 'scriptmail.intermedia.net';
This line sets the SMTP server for the PHP mailer to use. If you were to load this on your site in your htdocs directory, it could be called using http://yourdomain.com/mailer.php
You cannot use php.ini to set the SMTP Server parameter, it must be set in your scripts (such as the script above). You may need to ask your vendor to assist you in adding a variable to their script so that you can set the SMTP server in their script so it can be properly passed to the PHP Mailer function. Unfortunately, this is a development issue with your code, and we do not provide development support.
If you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Intermedia.NET Technical Support (SAT)
Email: support@intermedia.net
Support: http://www.intermedia.net/support/




erinch


#7 Today, 6:29pm
Steve Machol
vBulletin Team
Support Manager Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Arizona
Age: 52
Posts: 62,711

Basically your host is telling you that you need to hack vBulletin to get it to work with their server. Since 99% of the hosts do not have this requirement I find it a bit unreasoinable for them to force this on you.

Nonetheless this requires modifying the code. We cannot officially support code modifications or forums running modified code, however can try searching or asking for help with this over at www.vbulletin.org.

I have added this host to my list of hosts to avoid since they cannot support the default vBulletin code that 99% of other hosts can.


Steve Machol

#8 Today, 7:50pm
erinch
Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Age: 46
Posts: 32

And just to wrap it up, here's their response. I'll check over on the other board for a temporary solution. This board is time critical, so I can't afford the "lost time" in transferring to another host at the moment. thanks for your lightning fast responses.

Erin to intermedia:
Since I opened this linux account on intermedia specifically to run this bulletin board, I guess my best solution will be to look for a different host and to move my account to one which is more friendly to vBulletin without requiring hacks which vBulletin can't support. You might want to check with the intermedia "policy" folks and let them know they're being blacklisted by one of the premier messageboard companies. I've been very pleased with your Windows IIS hosting for my main website. I opened this linux account in order to gain access to mySQL for the bulletin board. thanks, Erin C-H



Intermedia:
Hello Erin,
Thank you for your message. You can certainly try creating your own php.ini file in the same directory as your php script and making the changes to the settings you need there. We cannot globally change the php.ini file on the server as it would effect *every* user on the server, and not all of our customers are using scriptmail.intermedia.net to send messages via their PHP scripts, so making this change would cause their scripts to fail. One of the advantages of using languages such as PHP or Perl is that you can override global settings with your own local variables stored in the scripts themselves. We are sorry that VBulletin does not allow for you to set the SMTP server directly in their code.
If you need further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Intermedia.NET Technical Support (SAT)
Email: support@intermedia.net
Support: http://www.intermedia.net/support/


erinch


#9 Today, 8:41pm
Steve Machol
vBulletin Team
Support Manager Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Arizona
Age: 52
Posts: 62,711

I've never heard of doing that before. I also don't know what exactly they say should go in this php.ini file. You'll need to ask them for specifics.

As I said, 99% of hosts do not do this to their customers so as far as I'm concerned they should just tell you exactly what you need to do rather than replying with these cryptic messages

Help?? Anyone????

[jugo]

they should just fix your sendmail.

That simple.

[erinch]

as you can see, they won't or say they can't.

if the script possible to implement so i don't need to move hosts?

[jugo]

Dude..just switch hosts...

I can make the switch real easy for you...PM Me.