• Registered: 2004-09-24
  • Posts: 6

Topic: E-Mail Issues

Kudos to the author of these forums.  I reallly like them a lot.  It's got just the right amount of features, and it runs really quickly!

Now my issue:

When I try to "send e-mail" to a user, the browser seems to hang, and I eventually get this response, "An error was encountered - Error: Couldn't get mail server response codes. Please contact the forum administrator..".

I have fiddled with the mail settings under the admin options.  Like, adding "localhost" for the SMTP field, or "localhost:25".  It's important that I mention I run a mail server without problems.  I am using CommuniGate Pro for that.  I find that if I check the logs on the mail server, there is nothing ever reported.  So, the initial internal SMTP connection isn't getting made.

If I ssh into my server and telnet to localhost on port 25, I can send emails just fine.  So I am not sure where I am getting stuck.

I also tried entering a username and password for Authorization, but the response I got back (from the SMTP server) was something to the effect of AUTH is not implimented.

Any advice of what I can look into would be greatly appreciated!  :-)

-Ray Dios Haque
http://www.gloop.net

My forums - http://www.gloop.net/forums

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: E-Mail Issues

If you run a local SMTP server, you shouldn't have to enter anything in those fields. PunBB will then utilize PHP's mail() function (which calls the sendmail binary).

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

  • Registered: 2004-09-24
  • Posts: 6

Re: E-Mail Issues

I tried to initially leave it blank (and I have tried that since), but I got the same problem with the browser hanging, and then displaying "An error was encountered - Error: Couldn't get mail server response codes. Please contact the forum administrator..".

Is there a log file that PunBB produces that I could look at?  My mail server never shows any connection of any kind in it's logs.

Also, when you say that if left blank it uses the "internal mail program", is that sendmail?

Thanks,

-Ray

By the way, LOVE the signature!  ;-)

  • Registered: 2004-09-24
  • Posts: 6

Re: E-Mail Issues

Oh, you answered my question.  Nevermind.  It is sendmail!  :-)

-Ray

  • Registered: 2004-09-24
  • Posts: 6

Re: E-Mail Issues

Is there anything that would prevent PHP from using Sendmail or any mail for that matter?

I am wondering if I am suffering from a security setting of some kind.

-Ray

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: E-Mail Issues

Have you compiled PHP yourself? In that case, you can check out the output from ./configure. It tries to locate the sendmail binary (or a clone thereof) and if it doesn't, I believe it won't work. I'm not 100% this still applies, but it did a while ago.

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

  • Registered: 2004-09-24
  • Posts: 6

Re: E-Mail Issues

I know my problem at this point is not with PunBB.  I definitely have issues that will require some investigating.  I updated my sendmail to the latest, and tried to run off an email to someone through the forums and it just hangs forever.  If I get on the server and run a process list, this is what I can see ...

# ps -ax | grep sendmail
   80  ??  Ss    27:18.89 sendmail: accepting connections (sendmail)
   83  ??  Is     0:22.15 sendmail: Queue runner@00:30:00 for /var/spool/clientmqueue (sendmail)
16344  ??  I      0:00.00 sh -c /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
16345  ??  I      0:00.05 sendmail: ./i8OKNWsJ016345 [127.0.0.1]: client MAIL (sendmail)
16346  ??  I      0:00.02 sendmail: i8OKNXoh016346 localhost.gloop.net [127.0.0.1]: MAIL From (s

So, it's getting started, but something is not allowing sendmail to finish the job.

Also, I did install PHP myself.  I checked out the Makefile, and it was correctly pointing to the sendmail binary (/usr/sbin/sendmail).

-Ray

  • Registered: 2004-09-24
  • Posts: 6

Re: E-Mail Issues

I fixed it.

I'm not sure what was going on there.  The problem was definitely with sendmail.  I went in and stopped the sendmail service, then restarted it.  It complained that a file called "local-host-names" did not exist in /etc/mail.  So I created it, and put a few entries into it ...

localhost (the one that probably fixed it)
gloop.net
localhost.gloop.net

I started sendmail which went okay, and then when I sent myself a message with PunBB it slid right out.  We're in business.

Thank you!!  I am having fun with this software, and I think 'the users' will really enjoy it.

-Ray

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: E-Mail Issues

Check out the actual sendmail log (can't remember where it is /var/log/somewhere).

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

  • Registered: 2004-08-08
  • Posts: 508

Re: E-Mail Issues

it's /var/log/maillog