How to exactly make an SMTP work

Which operating system are you using?

This guide will explain you step by step how to setup a SMTP client with the free Google Apps for Domain:

http://nanotux.com/blog/the-ultimate-server/4/#l-mail

It works perfectly, though it's written fro Ubuntu Hardy with Lighttpd. Which means that you may need change some directories (eg. that of php.ini) and you need to restart Apache instead of Lighttpd afterwards.

Terrum, unless you very much know what you're doing, I'd highly recommend you not use XAMPP for a production environment. XAMPP was designed to give developers an easy-to-install dev environmet for their projects. It was never meant to be used in production. See this quote from the xampp website:
> The default configuration is not good from a securtiy point of view and it's not secure enough for a production environment - please don't use XAMPP in such environment.

You didn't mention which distro you're using, but regardless, they all have easy-to-install packages for everything in the LAMP system. Do yourself a favor - remove xampp and re-install from your distro's package repositories. You'll save yourself many a headache going forward.

Thanks for all your replies. I'm using xampp for projects atm until i find out how to make a working mail server. I'm using windows. I know that xampp is not secure and will be using proper software later after I have finished working out stuff and learning. Thanks again and hope you can help.

Bump

Postfix is a popular SMTP server. To install,

If using Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get update
apt-get install postfix

If using Fedora, or other RPM distros:

yum update
yum install postfix

@saman007uk:

Postfix is a popular SMTP server. To install,

If using Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get update
apt-get install postfix

If using Fedora, or other RPM distros:

yum update
yum install postfix

I'm running windows.

@Terrum:

I'm running windows.
Are you even a Linode customer? We discuss Linux here. I think you may be asking the wrong forum.

Anyway, PHP scipts (I think) don't usually need an SMTP server to send mail. They usually use the internal mail() PHP function.

> PHP scipts (I think) don't usually need an SMTP server to send mail. They usually use the internal mail() PHP function.

As I understand it, php mail() is just a wrapper for sendmail or (similar). http://php.net/manual/en/mail.requirements.php:

> For the Mail functions to be available, PHP must have access to the sendmail binary on your system during compile time. If you use another mail program, such as qmail or postfix, be sure to use the appropriate sendmail wrappers that come with them. PHP will first look for sendmail in your PATH, and then in the following: /usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/etc:/etc:/usr/ucblib:/usr/lib. It's highly recommended to have sendmail available from your PATH. Also, the user that compiled PHP must have permission to access the sendmail binary.

@saman007uk:

Anyway, PHP scipts (I think) don't usually need an SMTP server to send mail. They usually use the internal mail() PHP function.
The machine still needs an MTA to handle delivery either as per normal, or via smarthost…

No, i'm not a linode customer, But then why is the forum free to register on? It should have a reservation code or serial number from your purchase or something.

But if PHP doesn't need a SMTP server, how can I get PHPBB to send mails then for verification etc?

@Terrum:

No, i'm not a linode customer, But then why is the forum free to register on? It should have a reservation code or serial number from your purchase or something.
Nobody is saying that you can't post here, just that if you have questions relating to Windows, you're probably asking the wrong people.

@Terrum:

But if PHP doesn't need a SMTP server, how can I get PHPBB to send mails then for verification etc?
PHP does need a mail transfer agent such as sendmail to be able to send mail.

@pclissold:

@Terrum:

No, i'm not a linode customer, But then why is the forum free to register on? It should have a reservation code or serial number from your purchase or something.
Nobody is saying that you can't post here, just that if you have questions relating to Windows, you're probably asking the wrong people.

@Terrum:

But if PHP doesn't need a SMTP server, how can I get PHPBB to send mails then for verification etc?
PHP does need a mail transfer agent such as sendmail to be able to send mail.

Well i was gathering the way he asked if i'm a Linode member was the way saying that i'm not allowed.

If this even is the wrong forum to be asking on, I'd be pretty sure to find some member on here that has worked with some relation to windows smtp/email servers. But thanks for helping anyway. Still looking for replies if possible.

You're really asking your question in the wrong place. These forums are populated by people who have a strong tendency to use various Linux distributions on servers. Since you're using Windows, perhaps asking in another forum where the users are more focused on Windows server administration would result in better answers.

A Google search turned up a ton of hits for the term "windows admin forums"; the first link I hit was "http://forums.windowsitpro.com/". Good luck with your search.