Another Mail Problem

[Rachael]

I don't dispute that vBulletin does not change the from or reply address to 'no @ mail'. As I said, this is what was configured in my php.ini. I've had to repeat my explanations of the problem several times in this thread because you have shown complete misunderstanding of my problem.

Instead of trying to deny the problem, why don't you try being more constructive and offer some help to identify whether there is a problem or not, or is vBulletin considered to be completely faultless by you? There is support from at least one other person that they are having a similar problem.

Can you please answer one straightforward question in an attempt to understand if and where there is a problem? If the webmaster address is set correctly in the admin CP should any mail sent from vBulletin have the sendmail_from address anywhere within it?

My favoured explanation is that sometimes the mail isn't formed by vBulletin with a from address and therefore the php mail function substitutes the sendmail_from value.

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by Rachael
I don't dispute that vBulletin does not change the from or reply address to 'no @ mail'. As I said, this is what was configured in my php.ini. I've had to repeat my explanations of the problem several times in this thread because you have shown complete misunderstanding of my problem.

Maybe I have misunderstood. If so, I apologize. Correct me if I'm wrong but this is what I thoguht you were claiming:

1. That emails are being rejected because of a faulty email address in the 'From' field.

and that....

2. vB is randomly changing the 'From' address to an invalid address causing this failrue.

Is this correct or do I misunderstand what you are saying?

Is this is correct, then in regards to the first item there is no evidence as yet that any emails have been rejected because of the 'From' field. I continue to believe that these rejects are most likely due to the 'Return-Path' which is something that the server tacks on.

As for the second one, there is absolutely no evidence that vB 'randomly' changes the 'From' address. I'm sorry if you think I'm being difficult but I honestly do not see this as even being possible with the default vB scripts.

Instead of trying to deny the problem, why don't you try being more constructive and offer some help to identify whether there is a problem or not

Being constructive first invoves correctly identifying what the problem is. I believe you have misidentified the problem and I've tried to show you why I think this. Furthermore I also tried to show you where I think the problem is. Clearly I've failed to communicate this satisfactorily. Once again I apologize. I really thought I was trying to be constructive.

...or is vBulletin considered to be completely faultless by you?

Obviously vB is not perfect nor have I made any claims that it is.

There is support from at least one other person that they are having a similar problem.

Which problem? The one where vB is randomly changing the 'From' address? If so, I must have overlooked this. Sorry about that. Please point this out to me again and I'll take a look at it.

Can you please answer one straightforward question in an attempt to understand if and where there is a problem? If the webmaster address is set correctly in the admin CP should any mail sent from vBulletin have the sendmail_from address anywhere within it?

I am not aware of any circumstance in which vB uses the 'sendmail_from' email address in the 'From' field. To test this out, I even purposely generated a database error in my test forum and the resulting email came from the webmaster's email address. All other emails I've checked also come from the webmaster's email address (reported posts, email notifications, activation email, etc.)

My favoured explanation is that sometimes the mail isn't formed by vBulletin with a from address and therefore the php mail function substitutes the sendmail_from value.

I've honestly never seen this happen before. My opinion based on the evidence so far is that the problem is actually with the 'Return-path' field, not the 'From' field.

[GBD]

I may be of some help here...

I run a web/mail server and have experienced the same issues. I do not believe it's a VB only problem because I have some PHP users that are experiencing the same issues with their web forms when attempting to send verifications back to those email addresses that have filled out the form.

As for the random issue, it's not random at all. When a form/script sends the email through the email server, the logs show:

01/06/03 10:20:01 1656 SMTP DATA xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx mail from:<>
01/06/03 10:20:01 1656 SMTP DATA xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx rcpt to:<[email protected]>

Note the blank <> under FROM. This happens in PHP all the time. Now, when that email goes from my mail server with a blank FROM field, the recipient's host rejects the email since it considers it spam. Hotmail, Yahoo, etc have been confirmed to not work when the header is blank.

So what we have is the php forms only working on local email addresses OR to ISP's who allow for empty FROM headers.

FYI - I primarily use ASP to send email and do not have this problem with ASP. So far, I've only found it with PHP.

Rachael mentions that her ISP changed their php.ini to reflect her email address so that it would function for her. Unfortunately, everytime her ISP sends out a php-based email, the recipient is going to see the email address (hers) that the ISP put in there for her as the FROM address.

When the php.ini field is left blank or is an invalid address, you get the above problem rather then the PHP code populating the FROM field properly.

I hope this helps a little by way of explanation as it is NOT a random event but simply ISP's blocking blank mail (from) headers. I have not found a solution for my customers other than having them use a local account.

Also, the question that needs to be addressed is whether or not it's a PHP problem when passing information to the mail server and/or is it related to specific mail server software packages not having the ability to translate PHP?

[Rachael]

GBD

I went through in detail and watched the logs files for this and it's definitely the reply path being set from the php.ini file being used to return mail bounced by servers. This reply path is added by php because it is not set by vBulletin.

Documenting the problem and posting it here is on my list of things to do, but not at the top as I'm the only user mailing off my server it doesn't matter that the php.ini contains my mail address.

Rach

[Kniht]

I'd like to add to this thread.

While I'm not as versed in rooting through the mail logs (and in fact, I'm curious to know how if it can be done through vbulletin), I run vbulletin on a windows server and have issues with users not receiving their registration email or registration reminders. I've had 3 users complain that they don't receive the emails (my userbase is between 50-100).

As a side note, is it possible to have task or control panel logs emailed to admins through vbulletin? I don't see this anywhere in the vbulletin set-up.

Thanks,
Kniht

[Steve Machol]

You would need to find the mail logs on that server and search for those email addresses to see what is happening.

Currently there is no option to email the logs.