Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : Windows Hosting : Configuring mail features of Windows Server 2003?

[diehlka]

Please pardon the "newbie" nature of this post. (Due to circumstances outside my control, I've had management of a Windows Server 2003 VPS thrust upon me, and I'm feeling like a fish out of water!)

I have finally abandoned any hope of getting phpmailer to work with Joomla 1.0.13, so I've decided to configure the POP3/SMTP features of my server so that I can use Joomla's SMTP mail service. (Joomla's SMTP option is limited to port 25 and cannot use ssl.) Anyway, I've tried to set up my POP3 and SMTP services, but I must be doing something wrong. I have both services set up with my registered domain name -- and a check of the DNS in the SMTP setup comes back OK. However, if I try to use my domain name as my SMTP and POP servers in Outlook Express, the program times out while "looking for host." If I enter "localhost" or my IP address (numeric) as my mail servers, I get a dialog box asking me to log in. However, when I try to log in -- using my administrator name & password -- it doesn't work.

I should probably stress that I'm using SERVER 2003, not an EXCHANGE server for this. I have need for one, whole mailbox to make my stupid contact form work, which is why I'm doing this in the first place. If this doesn't work, I'm going to create my own contact form in html, throw it into a joomla content page, and use the phpmailer script to send it manually. Not ideal, as it will always go to the same mailbox, but I'm getting to the point where I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!

Any answers for this (rather bone-headed) question would be greatly appreciated. I've been wrestling with mail functions for A WEEK now, and I'm beginning to feel like an idiot. I now understand why managed hosting is so popular!!! Thanks so much!

[040Hosting]

diehlka,

I do not know why there was chosen a windows VPS instead of a linux VPS it would have saved you many headaches when it comes to mail. But hence, this is where you got yourself into, now you have to find the solution.

First, that you can only connect with localhost or IP seems to be a DNS issue as the machine can not resolve the domainname to the correct IP address. I can not help you with that you have to change this yourself; or ask your provider to help you with it.

For the mail issue; try this walk through : http://www.ilopia.com/Articles/Windo...ailServer.aspx

Good luck with configuring and settings things up.

[shellnil]

Hello,

there seems to be the issues with the hostname configured on the server. The hostname should be configured with a fully qualified domain name with a dns suffix such as server.domain.com and it should be resolved to the right IP address that is the server's static IP address. Check for the DNS entries on the server.
Click start >> Click Run >> dnsmgmt.msc here you will get the exact DNS records that are configured on the server.
Once you confirmed if the DNS records are configured correctly. Use following command at command prompt.

ipconfig /registerdns

[diehlka]

Originally Posted by 040Hosting

diehlka,

I do not know why there was chosen a windows VPS instead of a linux VPS it would have saved you many headaches when it comes to mail. But hence, this is where you got yourself into, now you have to find the solution.

First, that you can only connect with localhost or IP seems to be a DNS issue as the machine can not resolve the domainname to the correct IP address. I can not help you with that you have to change this yourself; or ask your provider to help you with it.

For the mail issue; try this walk through : http://www.ilopia.com/Articles/Windo...ailServer.aspx

Good luck with configuring and settings things up.

Oh, trust me. The Windows VPS was not a "choice" -- it was a necessity. Our very small company has absolutely no need for its own server -- managed hosting was more than sufficient. However, one of our new products is an industrial system which communicates through a commercial VPN. Unfortunately, the VPN's host only allows access to the VPN through a Windows client. The client must be installed on the webhost in order for us to link our customers to their equipment. Which means I needed root access to a windows server to make that happen. (Trust me, I exhaused ALL other resources before going this route. I knew it would be a nightmare before I started!)

The ilopia article was very helpful. As it turns out, I simply needed to login with SPA. I'm now sending and receiving emails from my server.

Unfortunately, I'm still not getting joomla to send using smtp, even with my localhost being the smtp server. I'm ready to pull my hair out over this.

Does ANYONE out there have joomla running on a windows server with mail functions working??? I'm beginning to think I'm more likely to meet Santa Claus than to get a mail sent from this webpage.

Thanks again.

[diehlka]

UPDATE:

If anyone stumbles across this thread, I can happily report a solution. Unfortunately, it involves upgrading to joomla 1.5. (Thankfully for me, my site was fairly simple and migrated easily.)

I downloaded phpmailer 2.0 and then did the following...

1. renamed class.phpmailer.php and class.smtp.php to phpmailer.php and smtp.php respectively
2. edited phpmailer.php, went to line 501, changed class.smtp.php to smtp.php

Next, in phpmailer.php, I added the correct smtp server, port #, changed authorization to "true," and added login and passwords for my smtp server. If the smtp server requires it, you can also activate ssl here (as long as you have ssl installed with php)

In the Joomla admin backend,

Mail from -> admin@yoursite.com
From Name -> myname
Sendmail Path (blank)
SMTP Authentication -> Yes
SMTP Username -> smtp host username
SMTP Password -> smtp host password
SMTP Host -> smtp host address

And, what do you know, it works!! I can even use gmail as my smtp server, so long as I enter my gmail address as my username, enable ssl, and use port 465.

I hope my week of hair-pulling helps someone else out there. Moral of the story: if hosting on a Windows server, use joomla 1.5!

[bluejaycker]

I tried to follow your instructions but im new in these areas...
Can you teel me how did you install PHPMailer?