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Accepted
Tony
Asked: 2009-08-04 14:32:49 +0800 CST

Trouble sending an email with the PHP mail function. Full trace provided

  • 772

I have a simple script setup:

<?php
mail('[email protected]', 'Hello World', 'Testing a message');
?>

I cannot send email from my server to AOL accounts. The error details are below. GMail lets me send the message...so I guess AOL is just a bit stricter.

   Starting tcpick 0.2.1 at 2009-08-03 22:25 UTC
    Timeout for connections is 600
    tcpick: reading from tcp_dump.pcap
    1      SYN-SENT       67.23.28.65:49516 > 64.12.138.153:smtp
    1      SYN-RECEIVED   67.23.28.65:49516 > 64.12.138.153:smtp
    1      ESTABLISHED    67.23.28.65:49516 > 64.12.138.153:smtp
    220-rly-mg05.mx.aol.com ESMTP mail_relay_in-mg05.6; Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:25:34 -0400
    220-America Online (AOL) and its affiliated companies do not
    220-     authorize the use of its proprietary computers and computer
    220-     networks to accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited bulk
    220-     e-mail sent from the internet.  Effective immediately:  AOL 
    220-     may no longer accept connections from IP addresses which 
    220      have no reverse-DNS (PTR record) assigned.
    EHLO bandop.com
    250-rly-mg05.mx.aol.com fallsroadsunoco.com
    250 HELP
    MAIL FROM:<www-data@com>
    501 SYNTAX ERROR IN PARAMETERS OR ARGUMENTS
    RSET
    250 OK
    QUIT
    1      FIN-WAIT-1     67.23.28.65:49516 > 64.12.138.153:smtp
    2      SYN-SENT       67.23.28.65:45729 > 216.239.113.101:smtp
    1      FIN-WAIT-2     67.23.28.65:49516 > 64.12.138.153:smtp
    221 SERVICE CLOSING CHANNEL
    1      RESET          67.23.28.65:49516 > 64.12.138.153:smtp
    3      SYN-SENT       67.23.28.65:45729 > 216.239.113.101:smtp
    tcpick: done reading from tcp_dump.pcap

    20 packets captured
    3 tcp sessions detected

Do you know how I can make the FROM parameter come out correctly? Setting the FROM header in the PHP mail function does not work.

UPDATE

This little hack is working but I would prefer to fix this issue outside of PHP. 

mail('[email protected]', 'Hello World', 'Testing a message', null,'[email protected]');

I am super noob with mail servers

php email

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    With AOL they often won't go through unless you fill out the form to get white listed. To change where the mail is coming from, edit the sendmail_path parameter in the php.ini file. This is mentioned in the php mail() doc under additional_parameters.

    For Example:

    sendmail_path = "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -f [email protected]"

    You can also pass instead a parameter to the mail() function:

    <?php
mail('[email protected]', 'the subject', 'the message', null,
   '[email protected]');
?>

    Lastly, you might find alternative mail package more flexible, such as PEAR MAIL package or msmtp, you can specify other smtp servers.

    • 2

  2. You want to change the envelope From: address, which is different from the From: header. See this comment in the mail() function's doc.

    The envelope address depends on your MTAs configuration - in your case, 'www-data' is the user your script runs as, and 'com' is (part?) of your machine's hostname. Assuming you are on *nix, you can try to override the envelope address like this:

    mail('[email protected]', 'Hello World', 'Testing a message', null,'[email protected]');

    where [email protected] is the envelope sender address you want to show.

    If that works, and you have access to your php.ini file, you can set the envelope sender address there - see Kyle's post.

    You might also want to have a look at your MTAs (sendmail, postfix) configuration - looks like it has a problem with your hostname setting. Changing php-s settings will fix it for php, but if something else (cron, logwatch) on your system wants to sent mail, it would be helpful to have a working MTA.

    Edit after your comment: It's hard to suggest anything without knowing your mail server's config, but for a start, try the following:

    myhostname = mail.virtualhostname.com
mydomain = virtualhostname.com
myorigin = $mydomain
masquerade_domains = virtualhostname.com
    • 1

  3. Try escaping the at sign.

    mail('corgan1003\@aol.com', 'Hello World', 'Testing a message');
    • 0