Mark, Bj, Sheila, Thank you all for bringing clarity to this one (though some mails, including Sheila's, haven't landed here yet! I think I have inferred the gist of the discussion from the four mails I've read.).
I am going back into the php book/tutorial/website-scripts and knew I would quickly hit the sendmail part of this (as part of a membership signup page) and wondered how I might deal with it on this windows PC. Last time it threw up errors. I have also plans for some complex mail sending and lists and was looking for the best answer when I get to that (in about 2020 at the present rate of progress :-( ). It is a relief that the mail sending is not another thing that needs to be learnt (I'll settle for whatever my host offers together with list management somwhere) though sending from the local PC would give plenty of control (stand up who said 'control freak'). Joseph > Sheila commented: > > > > Whoa there Bj, I think you got some bad > > information somewhere. > > Sorry if it sounded like I said sendmail() no longer exists, as it is indeed > still a core function of Unix servers - and maybe php itself, as a program, > does call it on Unix servers to implement its mail() function - but to the > php *programmer*, that much is invisible. Only the server administrator has > to know how php actually works - the programmer just calls on mail() to send > messages. And in fact with safe mode implemented, I know of no way for a > php script to explicitly call sendmail. > > > > And, with a local set such as Apache/Mysql/php, can mails be sent > without > > > the need for a mail service which is normally the smtp gate. I realise > > > they are capable of handling mail in volume and lists, but so far can't > > > quite grasp their role. In other words what do they do for mails that > I > > > would send from my machine or from the website? > > What you're probably wondering is "Do I have to put my script up on a Web > host to send email from a php script, or can I send from a script running on > my local PC with apache/mysql/php?" > > On a Windows PC (as opposed to a Windows server) you don't normally run a > local SMTP server, although as Sheila points out many viruses include their > own, and use it to send out new infected emails, so obviously if you found > and installed the right software it could be done. But with the usual > setup, if you were testing a script containing mail() on your local PC, > you'd get an error because there would be no default SMTP server for mail() > to pass on the messages to. If you installed Windows 2000 server edition > you could have IIS, SMTP and all kindsa goodies, and send tons of mail > direct from your very own PC. > > You might also be able to set things up so that php scripts running on your > local PC used your ISP's SMTP server to send out mail, not sure how, but you > might. Maybe I'll have a look over on php.net and see if there is any > information on that. ____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: "set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword" in the body of the email. To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
