IXWebHosting - getting emails to send

[russellr]

In recent times, some IXWebHosting customers have had problems getting FormMail to send email from the IX servers.

The solution is to add an "ini_set" call into the PHP code, like this:

ini_set('sendmail_from', 'webmaster@yourdomain.xyz'); 

replacing "yourdomain.xyz" with your actual domain name. For us, that would be "tectite.com".

You can just add this straight into FormMail near the top at around line 168, but then you'll have to remember to do this again whenever you upgrade your copy of FormMail.

To avoid this problem, here's the preferred technique:

1. In FormMail's configuration section, look for $HOOK_DIR and set it to "." (which means "current folder"):
   

                  /* Help: http://www.tectite.com/fmdoc/hook_dir.php */
   $HOOK_DIR = "."; 

   Depending on your version of FormMail, this is around line 580.
2. Create a file called "fmhookpreinit.inc.php", with the following contents:
   

   <?php
   ini_set('sendmail_from', 'webmaster@yourdomain.xyz');
   ?>

   making the appropriate replacement of "yourdomain.xyz".
3. Upload "fmhookpreinit.inc.php" to your server in the same folder as your copy of FormMail.
4. Test FormMail with the usual "testalert" test, and then test your forms.

I've attached a sample "fmhookpreinit.inc.php", which you can download and change with a simple text editor. (Don't use DreamWeaver!).

Thanks to FormMail user, David Owens for the information contained in this tip.

One last thing: PHP on your server must be otherwise setup correctly. For example, you will need an appropriate php.ini (maybe php5.ini) file. IX webhosting is responsible for providing that to you, so please contact your service agent for assistance, if required.

[lucieb]

Hi Russel,

My forms had been working fine for years and recently they stopped working and I was getting a message that said my form was not sending.

I tried making the change that you suggest in this thread and I also specified the email address in the "From_User" field, but my emails are still not sending.

I asked my web host what the problem was and he says that they made a chnage to the Sendmail function on the server for security reasons and my formmail script must specifiy a valid email address and provide a password to the server when the form is submitted in order to tell the server to send the results email.

I have no idea how to do this. Can you help?

Thanks,

Lucie

[russellr]

Hi,

Yes, we can help with this.

The first thing to do is to get your host to show you a sample PHP script that will work (minus the actual user names and passwords, of course).

This tells us exactly what needs to be done to work with their security system.

Then, we can either advise you one what changes you need to make, or do the work for you under our subscription support service.

Please email me directly when you have the above information.