Author Topic: STMP Server Settings (Read 3489 times)

davidmccready · « **on:** August 23, 2006, 01:23:29 am »

Dean

I get the following error message.

Testing mail servers..

[Bounce Handling]
Is enabled? Yes, Using bounce.cgi
Sending TESTBOUNCE email to bounce address.. Success!

If you receive an email at your "Administrator Email Address" bounce.cgi is configured correctly.

[SMTP Server]
Is enabled? Yes
Connecting to SMTP server..
Warning: fsockopen(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known in /home/"username"/public_html/mail/editconf.php on line 1907

Warning: fsockopen(): unable to connect to Listmail.resultsdelivery.com:25 in /home/"username"/public_html/mail/editconf.php on line 1907
Could not find server!

The SMTP server is not configured correctly. Check your settings.

No bounce emails are received
It is not possible to send an email

However my sign-ups are fine.

My STMP settings are as follows:

Host: localhost
Port: 25
Auth: Blank
Login ID: you@"mysite".com
Password: Blank

Bounce Message Handling

Use bounce.cgi
Host: mail."mysite".com
Type: Pop3
Login ID: bounce@"mysite".com
Password: Blank
Bounce to email address: bounce@"mysite".com

There have got to be a few simple mistakes in the above list.
My server uses Cpanel

Thanks for looking at this
David

DW · « **Reply #1 on:** August 23, 2006, 07:56:05 am »

Hi David,

The problem appears to be with your SMTP hostname. Under cPanel I recommend using "localhost" as the host with no authorization and a "reconnect" setting of 1000.

Regards!

davidmccready · « **Reply #2 on:** August 23, 2006, 08:20:49 am »

Dean

When you say "localhost"

Does that mean writing localhost into the Host box, or something else like example.com

Reconnect setting was 1000
Port 25

thanks

David

davidmccready · « **Reply #3 on:** August 24, 2006, 01:12:56 am »

Now to add to the hassle..... Whatever I have done to the settings.... Has stopped the previously functioning Dailymail.

Have tried Authorisation, which appears to help, because it says "Varified", but still no luck

What next?

davidmccready · « **Reply #4 on:** August 24, 2006, 05:00:19 am »

Hosting company have just made the following reply to my question about this to them:

"We dont allow connections to smtp locally. This is what sendmail is for. You need to use a script that supports sendmail."

davidmccready · « **Reply #5 on:** August 24, 2006, 07:16:27 am »

Now the hosting company have explained a little further:

Hosting servers provide basically two methods of sending mail.

The first is SMTP and is used to send mail using a remotely connected host like your pc and your email client like outlook express.

Allowing access to smtp directly on the server would be a security risk and could open up the server to spammers. For this reason and others, an smtp connector called "sendmail" was developed especially for hosting servers.

Sendmail is simply a binary on the server that is used to send mail. If you have a script that uses either the PHP mail() function or is otherwise written to make use of the sendmail binary, you will be able to send emails from your script on the server. You usally dont need the path to sendmail but this is /usr/sbin/sendmail

DW · « **Reply #6 on:** August 24, 2006, 06:08:36 pm »

David,

Quote

When you say "localhost" Does that mean writing localhost into the Host box, or something else like example.com

It means actually entering "localhost" in the box. "localhost" means "this computer", basically, the same server as the web server. A lot of hosts run SMTP and Web from the same server which makes this possible.

In my experience (I've done over 100 installations) 99.9% of hosts DO allow connections to SMTP from PHP scripts via 'localhost' or by directly entering the mail server hostname. I don't think such a restriction will help against spam at all, as anyone accepted for the hosting service will have the potential to use SMTP regardless of whether a connection is locally or remotely initiated. Spam could also be sent with PHP mail ("sendmail")...

To get around this restriction you may need to use the "internal PHP mail()" method of sending even though it's less reliable.

Regards

davidmccready · « **Reply #7 on:** August 25, 2006, 03:56:46 am »

Dean

I put your comments to the server helpdesk. Possibly the guy there did not realise:

1. Listmail does work with PHP mail

2. You have solved problems that he could not ( eg. cron episode)

Anyway here is the reply I got:
"
The Listmail representitive who emailed you is way behind on his understanding of this. Most decent web hosts now completely restrict access to SMTP via localhost. This is done by only allowing certain wheel group users to access SMTP. Its a tweak that is done to prevent exploits and to stop attacks. Sendmail was created for the purpose of sending emails via scripts on shared hosting servers and it looks to me like this Listmail software was written a long time ago when server security wasnt as important as it is today.

They have suggested to you that you should use the "internal PHP mail()" method of sending. This will be an option with your script and will work fine. You should ask them how to configure it to use that method.

I'm afraid our level of support does not stretch to fixing your scripts for you. We can only give general advice.
"

Is there anywhere else to go with this one?

To date your suggestions have worked very well. So as long as you are alive and well there is hope.

David

DW · « **Reply #8 on:** August 25, 2006, 02:31:54 pm »

Hi David,

I wasn't lying when I said in my (recent) experience with over 100 servers that most did allow "localhost" connections. If a user can exploit "localhost" then that means they can edit and run scripts on the server, which means they can exploit "sendmail" just as easily as SMTP, so restricting access does not prevent anything and I do not believe it stops any abuse. If a script is exploited or a user hosted on the server attempts abuse of the service, they can still send email without using SMTP... Allowing "localhost" essentially means "we trust users we have accepted and have running on our server to use our services" - this is, I would think, a reasonable expectation of a host...

Anyways... Maybe you can set your ListMail SMTP hostname to your web site domain name, or "mail.example.com" (replace example.com with your domain) which is essentially the same thing... If they absolutely will not allow connections from your web site to the SMTP server you will have to go with the much less reliable PHP mail().

Regards

davidmccready · « **Reply #9 on:** August 26, 2006, 12:57:21 am »

Dean

That would leave three ways forward:

1. Give up and get a new host...... lots of hassle.

2. A noticed some info on my Cpanel which says " Path to sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail ". Do you think there is anyway of exploiting that ?

3. The helpdesk guy is Chris http://www.4uhosting.co.uk
Are there any good questions you could ask him that might solve this ?

Thanks
David

DW · « **Reply #10 on:** August 26, 2006, 01:31:22 pm »

David,

ListMail was designed to work with any SMTP software and therefore specific code to use /usr/bin/sendmail is not currently included.

This is the first time in over 5 years I've had a host not allow SMTP from PHP scripts... Did you try "mail.example.com" (replace example.com with your ListMail domain) as your hostname?

I wish I had better news or some suggestions on this. I'm afraid all I can recommend is using "internal PHP mail" instead of SMTP, or that you obtain a new host just for your list mailing to avoid the headache of migrating your site.

Regards