Sending mail with mail() without header

[Sebzzz]

Hi,

I'm working on a website where there is a from from which I want to
send the data by e-mail.

When I send myself the result with mail($my_email, $title, $message)
everything works fine and I receive a plain text email. However, the
people for which I'm doing the site receive some kind of error when I
do the same thing but delivered to them mail($their_email, $title,
$message)

The error looks something like this:

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: se******@theirdomain.com
Reason: Illegal host/domain name found

I also used something like this in the script to make it work when
sending it to myself:

ini_set('SMTP', 'mail.theirdomain.com');
ini_set('sendmail_from', 'se******@theirdomain.com');

Is it the fact that I send this email in plain text with no headers
that could trigger some sort of spam filtering?

If so, what headers should I be using?

Thanks in advance

[Twayne]

Hi,

>
I'm working on a website where there is a from from which I want to
send the data by e-mail.

When I send myself the result with mail($my_email, $title, $message)
everything works fine and I receive a plain text email. However, the
people for which I'm doing the site receive some kind of error when I
do the same thing but delivered to them mail($their_email, $title,
$message)

The error looks something like this:

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

Recipient address: se******@theirdomain.com
Reason: Illegal host/domain name found

I also used something like this in the script to make it work when
sending it to myself:

ini_set('SMTP', 'mail.theirdomain.com');
ini_set('sendmail_from', 'se******@theirdomain.com');

Is it the fact that I send this email in plain text with no headers
that could trigger some sort of spam filtering?

If so, what headers should I be using?

Thanks in advance

I can't give a lot of detail, but it's because the Headers are non-RFC
compliant, I imagine. Without the envelope "from" and "return path"
etc. many ISPs will reject the mail. I imagine someone who can give you
specific details will be along shortly.

HTH

[Sebzzz]

Thanks for this piece of info.

It helps to know where the problem comes from.

On Jul 28, 11:26*am, "Twayne" <[e-mail]:

Hi,

I'm working on a website where there is a from from which I want to
send the data by e-mail.

When I send myself the result with mail($my_email, $title, $message)
everything works fine and I receive a plain text email. However, the
people for which I'm doing the site receive some kind of error when I
do the same thing but delivered to them mail($their_email, $title,
$message)

The error looks something like this:

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

*Recipient address: [e-mail]
*Reason: Illegal host/domain name found

I also used something like this in the script to make it work when
sending it to myself:

* *ini_set('SMTP', 'mail.theirdomain.com');
* *ini_set('sendmail_from', '[e-mail]');

Is it the fact that I send this email in plain text with no headers
that could trigger some sort of spam filtering?

If so, what headers should I be using?

Thanks in advance

I can't give a lot of detail, but it's because the Headers are non-RFC
compliant, I imagine. *Without the envelope "from" and "return path"
etc. many ISPs will reject the mail. *I imagine someone who can give you
specific details will be along shortly.

HTH

[Twayne]

Thanks for this piece of info.

>
It helps to know where the problem comes from.

On Jul 28, 11:26 am, "Twayne" <[e-mail]:

>>Hi,

>>I'm working on a website where there is a from from which I want to
send the data by e-mail.

>>When I send myself the result with mail($my_email, $title, $message)
everything works fine and I receive a plain text email. However, the
people for which I'm doing the site receive some kind of error when
I do the same thing but delivered to them mail($their_email,
$title, $message)

>>The error looks something like this:

>>Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

>>Recipient address: [e-mail]
Reason: Illegal host/domain name found

>>I also used something like this in the script to make it work when
sending it to myself:

>>ini_set('SMTP', 'mail.theirdomain.com');
ini_set('sendmail_from', '[e-mail]');

>>Is it the fact that I send this email in plain text with no headers
that could trigger some sort of spam filtering?

>>If so, what headers should I be using?

>>Thanks in advance

I can't give a lot of detail, but it's because the Headers are
non-RFC compliant, I imagine. Without the envelope "from" and
"return path" etc. many ISPs will reject the mail. I imagine someone
who can give you specific details will be along shortly.

HTH

Well, since no one else has come along yet I'll give you what little I
know from my meager experience:
You have to have From. Not the From that prints for the recipient, but
the From header in the envelope.
I think the Return Path is derived from that.

You need to identify the content type. e.g. texp/plain, etc.

Then the doctype, and etc. etc.. PHPNet and W3 schools both have good
articles on them; I'd do some checking there to get going if this is new
to you. Basically you have a set of requireds and then a set of "if you
wanna" types of headers.

I'm new at this too so getting too specific would be the blind leading
the blind <g>.

HTH

Twayne

[The Hajj]

You don't have to set headers if you ini is set properly, even though
I've never had to set anything in my ini for my mail scripts. I do now
however format the headers properly... excerpt from ini
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = [e-mail]

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

What are they using for mail? What OS is php running from? If it's
winders check to see if they have the smtp relay open, if not (more
than likely) have the admin add the server to allow it to relay, I
don't remember where it's at off the top of my head as my server admin
hat has a bit of dust one it.

When using headers use similar to this format $header .= "From:
$webmaster" . "\r\n"; . The last part is important, Google for more
info

[Jerry Stuckle]

The Hajj wrote:

You don't have to set headers if you ini is set properly, even though
I've never had to set anything in my ini for my mail scripts. I do now
however format the headers properly... excerpt from ini
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = [e-mail]

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

What are they using for mail? What OS is php running from? If it's
winders check to see if they have the smtp relay open, if not (more
than likely) have the admin add the server to allow it to relay, I
don't remember where it's at off the top of my head as my server admin
hat has a bit of dust one it.

When using headers use similar to this format $header .= "From:
$webmaster" . "\r\n"; . The last part is important, Google for more
info

No, you don't HAVE to set headers to send the email. But if you don't
have certain headers, some spam filters will chuck the message.

An example is not having Reply To: - if it's missing or doesn't match
the From: header, it won't make it through some spam filters.

--
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Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
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