shaunrigby Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 OK Guys (and girls), I have been doing some research into how to send mail to a Hotmail address using the mail() function provided in PHP, in previous posts I may have been wrong in mentioning that you need to add your mail server to the hotmail PostMaster website using Smart Network Data Services (SNDS), after doing some research I have found that in order to send e-mail to a Hotmail address you need to add/ask your host to add an SPF record to your domain. What is SPF? Well, SPF is a protocol used to eliminate forged e-mails, much like SSL certificates help eliminate phising websites. Microsoft use the SPF record against the SenderID Framework that they have in place. How do I go about obtaining an SPF Record? Easy! use the Microsoft wizard found at: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/ to generate a unique SPF record for your domain, then add it to your DNS server, or ask your web host to do this. I manage my own DNS server, how do I add an SPF record to a domain? To begin, open the DNS MMC from the Administrative Tools menu of your Windows Server 2003 system. Next, find the domain that will host the SPF DNS lookup record. Highlight the folder for the domain, and select Other New Records from the Action menu. You can also access this menu by right-clicking the domain folder. The resource Record Type dialog box will be displayed. From the Select a Resource Record Type area of the screen, scroll down the list and select Text (TXT) from the list. Click Create Record. This will bring up the New Resource Record dialog box to appear. This is where you paste the SPF record generated by the above website ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope this helps, I have tried it myself and e-mails went straight to my inbox (not junk mail). Would also appreciate feedback if this works for other providers such as Yahoo! etc as I have not tried it with them Give me your feedback on how it works for you, also if it works possibly make this thread sticky as I'm sure it will resolve many problems for people out there who are denying access to people who have public email addresses. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/46726-sending-mail-to-hotmail-using-the-mail-function/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunrigby Posted April 12, 2007 Author Share Posted April 12, 2007 Would it be possible for this thread to be made sticky? Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/46726-sending-mail-to-hotmail-using-the-mail-function/#findComment-227944 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaid Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 umm, this is just another microsoft monopoly trick i would suggest you don't use it, better to force microsoft to change their attitude than them forcing you. mail() works fine with hotmail...there is a small risk of email being sent to junk..that's their problem, not yours or the user. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/46726-sending-mail-to-hotmail-using-the-mail-function/#findComment-227949 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiberish Posted April 12, 2007 Share Posted April 12, 2007 SPF-records have nothing to do with Microsoft. SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework and it's created in order to reduce spam. In short terms you define all the outgoing servers mail can be sent from for a specific domain. If you say that mail from the domain example.com can only be sent using the mailserver smtp.example.com and you send from another server, the mail will be blocked if the receiver check SPF-records. More info here: http://www.openspf.org/ Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/46726-sending-mail-to-hotmail-using-the-mail-function/#findComment-227974 Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunrigby Posted April 13, 2007 Author Share Posted April 13, 2007 Jiberish is correct, the SenderID framework is a Microsoft framework which depends on SPF records. Ever received an e-mail into your hotmail account that says cannot verify SenderID blah blah blah, thats because it cannot find an SPF record for the senders domain. Link to comment https://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/46726-sending-mail-to-hotmail-using-the-mail-function/#findComment-228271 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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