I have been trying, without success, to resolve a problem I am having using the PHP mail() function. Hostony support does not seem to understand my problem, despite multiple tickets and IM explanations. Perhaps the user community can help.

Let me just note for posterity that I have been extremely unhappy with uptime, support, and overall system (un)reliability over the past month, which unfortunately has coincided with my busiest sales season. Let's just say that I don't want to think about the lost business that all these problems have caused me - probably enough to purchase my own dedicated web server and a fat pipe to my office.

The problem:

I use php mail() to send order confirmation emails. Also, visitors can use a form on many of my pages to 'email this page to a friend'. Both of these uses of mail() have worked flawlessly for over a year, sending many thousands of messages successfully.

Here is a test script I am using for simplicity:

<?PHP
$message = "this is a test of the PHP mail function";
$to = "joaquim_hailer@yahoo.com";
$subject = "testing mail";
mail($to, $subject, $message);
echo "attempted to send mail to $to";
?>

This script is as simple as it gets. If I change the $to variable to any address @joaquimhailer.com (my domain at hostony), it delivers the test message without trouble. The script DOES NOT deliver mail to any outside email address (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc.) THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM WITH THE SCRIPT. It is also not spam filters on my yahoo, gmail, etc. I put this EXACT same script on another host that I use, and it delivers the test message to my Yahoo inbox INSTANTLY.

The problem seems to have appeared when my site was moved from one server to another at hostony, in order to alleviate some of my downtime (unsuccessfully). Obviously this mailing function is a vital part of my business, and if I cannot resolve it in the next day or two (I have been trying for a week), I will be moving to a different host.

Any assistance, particularly from hostony tech people, will be appreciated.

IF you compare the 2 headers whats the biggest difference? my best gues is that it is a "Return-Path:" issue.
So your mail gets blocked by yahoo hotmail etc due to incomplete or wrong header information, and so you mail doesnt even reach your "spam" inbox.

mabye past the 2 headers here so we all can have a look

Thanks for the reply -

I will look into the header idea. I had considered that the script, when used from my hostony site, is totally blocked. However, it seemed unlikely that it would be blocked by hotmail, gmail, and yahoo - all starting at roughly the same time (about a week ago). Unless my ip is listed in a spam database, which it does not appear to be according to dnsstuff.com.


Also, my 'real' script that I use on my pages adds complete header info (mailer, return-path, etc. etc.)

I will definitely compare the headers and see if that could be an issue.

It looks like I am having the same problem, I have now been waiting for 14 hours for a reply about this issue and I have heard nothing, since I have had my account I have been posting support tickets more than working, about 2 weeks ago I was moved from one server to another because "the server is unstable" now this problem! I was recommending my customers to get accounts on here but I am thinking against it at the moment as it will make me look bad!


Can we get a message from support on here about what is happening and we dont want "we are looking into it" or anything like that, we have a right to know what is going on we are paying for the service!

Thank you

I use phpmailer to send form mails, activations mails, and related.



is awesome, also you can send multipart alternative emails (html and txt versions), and use the native php mail function, or a connection to a smtp server.

I have received quite a few half-assed answers from support.

My headers are fine, the function was working without a problem until a couple weeks ago, and it works without a problem from a different host/server.

it isn't my local ISP, my ISP has nothing to do with it, it is between hostony and yahoo/gmail/etc that the problem lies.


I have solved the problem in a different manner: I will be terminating my Hostony contract and moving to a more reliable and professional host.

some people change of hosts like others change of t-shirts.

Interesting....


After being told for two weeks that the problem was with my script, or with my local ISP, and that everything was working just fine with Hostony, this exact same script (totally unchanged by me from the one that was NOT working for the past two and half weeks) now mysteriously seems to be working again.