Re: mail() problems

What's wrong w PHPMailer? On Thu, Sep 04, 2014 at 03:38:39PM -0400, Paul M Foster wrote: > On Thu, Sep 04, 2014 at 09:13:29AM -0400, Jim Giner wrote: > > > I've been using the built-in (?) 'mail()' function quite > > successfully so far (ie, a couple of years) and have not had need to > > seek an alternate. That said, I now have to ask the group if there > > are known cases of intermittent success with this tool. > > > > I have a pretty good working template for handling emails with a > > piped script that sends it results to a std mailbox for review after > > the script does it thing. I have several (3-4) scripts linked to > > mailboxes that work successfully every time, meaning that my db gets > > updated and the emails get sent. Recently I built a new mailbox, > > made a new script from my template and began testing. At first > > (after clearing out all the syntax errors) it worked successfully > > but then after a dozen or so tests I stopped getting the emails. > > Now it gets weird. > > > > Sometimes the script doesn't seem to run at all since my db doesn't > > get updated nor do I receive an email. Other times the db does get > > updated but I still get no email. I have debugged and debugged and > > placed incremental 'send email' steps throughout my code and still > > no emails come back. > > > > But then all of a sudden it works! My hosting co. says there is no > > problem with my email accounts and no errors showing, nor do I have > > any error logs that show anything. It's been about 4 days now and I > > am at a loss to explain it. > > > > Could it be possible that php or mail() is truly buggy and tempermental? > > > > FYI -my host is running mysql 5.5.37(cli) with php 5.4.31 on apache 2.2.7 > > For what it's worth, I never ever trust what a hosting vendor says about > his environment and the state of his network. If your code always worked > and then it doesn't, it virtually has to be your hosting company. > > I also don't know how many times I've had to contact hosting companies > because it's become clear to me that their email servers have gotten > wedged. Or they'll change something on their network and never tell > anyone. > > Here's a ridiculous (but real) example: I had been hosting for years > with this hosting company (Company X). I'd had increasing problems with > their mailing hosts, as I used them for sending and receiving email for > my company. Investigation turned up the following: When I had signed on > with them years ago, they had recommended ns1.companyx.net and > ns2.companyx.net for nameservers at my registrars. When they found out > that my registrars were still using these nameservers, I was informed that > ns1.companyx.net was kinda working and ns2.companyx.net was defunct, and > I really should be using ns23.companyx.net and ns24.companyx.net. Those > were their "modern" nameservers. > > Immediately a couple of questions occurred to me. First, what > self-respecting hosting company allows old nameservers to simply age out > and die without telling all their clients who would be relying on those > nameservers? Second, who would simply move to different nameservers > without upgrading the old ones so that clients didn't have to go back to > their registrars and change nameservers? > > They also asked me, in light of my email problems, if I wouldn't prefer > using IMAP instead of POP3 for my email? And I'm thinking, "Are you > freaking kidding me? What does that have to do with ANYTHING? If I > wanted IMAP, I'd already be doing it, pinheads". All that question does > is tell me definitively, 1) you don't really have a clue what's wrong, > and 2) you don't want to fix whatever it is. > > And don't think this is just some guy in his living room. These guys are > a major hosting company whose name you'd probably recognize if you've > shopped for hosting in the last decade. > > Needless to say, I moved all my internal (company) sites off of these > guys after this. > > Paul > > -- > Paul M. Foster > http://noferblatz.com > http://quillandmouse.com > > -- > PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- =========================================================================== Jim Jagielski [|] jim@jaguNET.com [|] http://www.jaguNET.com/ "Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war" ~ John Adams