Trouble sending email using php form

[immohito]

Hi I am going crazy trying to send an email using XAMPP, my php form on my localhost server.

This is the email section of the code

if($insert_result)
        {    
 
            ini_set('SMTP', 'ssl://smtp.gmail.com');
            ini_set('smtp_port', 465); 
            ini_set('sendmail_from', '[e-mail]');
            ini_set('sendmail_path', 'localhost\C:\Program Files\xampp\sendmail\sendmail.exe');$to = $_REQUEST['email'];
            $message = "Please fill out a survey form. Follow this link---> <a href='{$email_link}'>HERE</a> to load the form.<br>";
            $nameTo = "Dear User"; 
            $subject = "Form completion required!";
            $headers = "MIME-Version: 1.0" . '\r\n';
            $headers .= "Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" . '\r\n';
            $headers .= "From: [e-mail]" . '\r\n';
 
            $sent = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers) ; 
            if($sent) 
            {print "Your mail was sent successfully"; }
            else 
            {print "We encountered an error sending your mail";
            echo $message;
            phpinfo();
            }
 

Right now, I am trying to use gmail's SMTP server. And it gives the following error:

Warning: mail() [function.mail]: Failed to connect to mailserver at "ssl://smtp.gmail.com" port 465, verify your "SMTP" and "smtp_port" setting in php.ini or use ini_set() in C:\xampp\htdocs\survey.php on line 328

I modified the sendmail.ini and entered my username and password in the auth_username and auth_password fields and restarted XAMPP. No result.

Earlier I tried sending using my company's ISP server. But it says Client is not authenticated.

I printed phpinfo() to check whats wrong. Its using the same php.ini file I am modifying and the local values of SMTP and smtp_port are changing but not the master values.

Mercury is running in my XAMPP Control Panel. Do I need to setup mercury? I just can't figure this out. I really hope someone can help me sort this out ASAP. Much appreciated.

[Luuk]

change line 4 to:

ini_set('SMTP', 'smtp.gmail.com'); 
 

This is because PHP does not know how to do 'ssl://', and thats why it says "Failed to connect to mailserver at "ssl://smtp.gmail.com" port ......"