Need Serious help

[Ali Imran]

I have been trying to send email from localhost.
I am using php on windows 98.

I placed this question almsot in all forums (many replies came out) but I could not get it working.

Shortly
Problem : I want to send email from my localhost

Question : How can do that, if anything needs to be congiured in php.ini or anything else please answer me.

I request serious developers only to answer me urgently.

regards
Ali Imran

[brendandonhue]

Which mail server are you running?

[Ali Imran]

I dont know how to install mail server, although I know only that I have apache webserver installed.

Do I need to install some SMTP ?

[pyro]

On my local server, I just use my existing mail server, as I didn't want to take the time to install a SMTP server. Just change you php.ini file to look something like this:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = mail.yourdomain.com ; for Win32 only

; For Win32 only.
sendmail_from = you@your.com ; for Win32 only

; For Unix only. You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail -t -i").
;sendmail_path =

[Ali Imran]

Thanks for the reply

What actually these two lines mean ?

I mean what actually "mail.yourdomain.com" should be ?
Becuase I have no idea of doing this...

SMTP = mail.yourdomain.com

sendmail_from = you@your.com

[pyro]

the SMTP line should be set to the SMTP server that you use for your email.

the sendmail_from line can be set to whichever email address you'd like...

[Khalid Ali]

do you use MS outlook or some other mail client on your machine???
or
you use hotmail/yahoo/netscape or the likes?

if you use some email client on your machine other then

hotmail/yahoo/netscape or the likes

then here is how you can see whats your SMTP server name,
I use MS outlook on windows 2000 pro.

from the top menu bar select
tools [then]
accounts [then]

at this point it should show you a small dialogue where you should see the account number in the far left and type
and connection

you should make sure that its the type = default that is highlighted

then click on properties

a new dialogue box appears
it contains 4 tabs.
General should be selected
you need to select the tab that says
"server"

in here you will see
Incoming mail(POP3) : some value
Outgoing mail(SMTP) : mail.yourdomain.com

the value next to SMTP is one you are interested in..

Hope this helps

[Ali Imran]

Mr.Khalid and fellows.

Just take me as a layman not a developer.
I am just a php developer and dont know anything yet about pop or smtp.

Mr.Khalid the way you demonstrated, is too difficult for me because I cannot find any of the mnetioned menues.

Assume I am new to all ths and need to send email from within php.

One of my friends sent email via php on Linux without configuring any SMTP or POP, then I think there must be some easy way to do that. Please dont mess me up with terminologies, and if possible reply me in simple language.

best regards
Ali Imran

[pyro]

We'll start with two questions:

Do you know where you php.ini file is? For me, on Windows XP, it is in the C:\Windows.

And two, do you know what the outgoing mail server is for your email account?

[Ali Imran]

php.ini in the c:\php fodler and I want custom smtp to be used locally.

[pyro]

If you want a custom smtp server, you'll have to find one, and install it. Try searching google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=free+smtp+server). As stated eariler, you could also use your outgoing mail server for you email (as long as it is not a webmail account)...

[Ali Imran]

I have seen somewhere smtp engine wrote in php

can anyone please direct me to the accurate link ?