First time installer - having trouble with mail, did i do something wrong?

[bullshock]

Ok, this will be a somewhat long post, but please bear with me.

 

Hi guys,

 

Ive been having a lot of trouble with a server that my jobs websites are hosted on. I have never used a server before...and didn't even know php was something you installed

 

I did manage to install it however...

 

and after a week of googling and tutorials up to my eyeballs, i now know that the server os is WINDOWS SERVER 2003, i have IIS 6, and i installed php 5 the other day. Its not a mail server, however it does have a virtual SMTP server available, but im not sure i know how to use it.

 

Heres the problem though, i have tried several contact forms, all online, and even written my own, they all work on my own private hosting, but when i run them on this server, either locally or from a browser on my computer, they've been returning errors.

 

After another week of googling and tutorials, I've managed to eliminate all of the errors down to authentication.

 

The test code:

<?php 
mail('[email protected]', 'Test Subject', 'Test Message');
?>

(removed my email from the above code)

 

the test URL:

http://atcpresents.com/mail/mailtest.php

 

But the link says it can not be authenticated. First off, from what i read, you don't need authentication for this, is that correct? and secondly, this is just for a contact form on the "Contact Us" page, and i don't care if it ends up in the spam folder, because all of these emails are being sent to a specific email set up just for this form.

 

Anyway, my question is, Is there a way to turn off authentication, either thru php, or thru the PHP.ini file on my server, or do i turn it off from my server itself? can anyone help me fix this issue?

 

I thought it was something in PHP.ini, but this is all i could find that references mail:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = <removed>
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only
sendmail_from = <removed>

(removed info) the rest is for unix platforms so im really stuck

 

Someone suggested i use PEAR, but i downloaded it and there were just a folder full of files, so i figured they went into the PHP5/ directory, but then i got these errors:

 

Warning: Mail_smtp::include_once(Net/SMTP.php) [mail-smtp.include-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:php5PEARMailsmtp.php on line 311

Warning: Mail_smtp::include_once() [function.include]: Failed opening 'Net/SMTP.php' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:php5pear') in C:php5PEARMailsmtp.php on line 311

Fatal error: Class 'Net_SMTP' not found in C:php5PEARMailsmtp.php on line 312

 

Which is strange, because i ran it on the server as well, AND checked the directory, and the files were there...not missing like the errors seem to point out.

 

I then proceeded to download the PEAR Package: Net_SMTP and replaced the "SMTP.php in the PEAR directory with the packaged one, and then the errors went away, however now im getting a blank screen, and still no mail.

 

The PEAR code:

<?php
require_once "Mail.php";

$from = "American Theatre Channel <[email protected]>";
$to = "somebody <[email protected]>";
$subject = "Hi!";
$body = "Hi,\n\nHow are you?";

$host = " smtp.1and1.com";
$username = "<removed>";
$password = "<removed>";

$headers = array ('From' => $from,
  'To' => $to,
  'Subject' => $subject);
$smtp = Mail::factory('smtp',
  array ('host' => $host,
    'auth' => true,
    'username' => $username,
    'password' => $password));

$mail = $smtp->send($to, $headers, $body);

if (PEAR::isError($mail)) {
  echo("<p>" . $mail->getMessage() . "</p>");
} else {
  echo("<p>Message successfully sent!</p>");
}
?>

 

the PEAR test url:

http://atcpresents.com/mail/8/pear.php

 

Found this on my web server providers site, not sure if it means anything:

==================================================================

Please note: To send e-mail using the SMTP-Server, activate SMTP Authentication. Please do not use the Secure Password Authentication (SPA) option. Optionally, port 587 can also be used in addition to the default port (25) RFC 2476.

==================================================================

 

How do i do that?

 

Im extremely lost, and id appreciate ANY direction you guys can give me, ???

Thanks guys.

[bullshock]

Anybody?

 

Id appreciate ANY direction, ANYTHING you guys have would be appreciated. I was supposed to have this done 2 weeks ago for my boss...

 

Thanks