Setup email server without a domain name?

[utgamer2004]

As part of my internship project,ive been asked to create a website which's primary goal is to accept certain information,validate the input from a database and then;generate and send an email back to the applicant.Until now,ive been sending these emails using a relay server(gmail),however id like to know,if it is possible at all to create an email server of my own(for testing purposes).Im using WAMP on Windows 7 with a static ip and no domain name.
More explicitly,i want to know if this is possible without a MX record or if theres any way around it?

Im a little new to hosting(2 weeks new ) so please forgive me if ive overlooked any obvious solution.

[gki]

Continue using Gmail (or your ISP) to relay emails. If you try to send them directly from your PC, you'll probably receive an error.

And this has nothing to do with MX records; they are only needed/used when receiving email.

[utgamer2004]

Continue using Gmail (or your ISP) to relay emails. If you try to send them directly from your PC, you'll probably receive an error.

And this has nothing to do with MX records; they are only needed/used when receiving email.

I know,i am getting an error(Could not instantiate mail function) in php but why?I have IIS running on a separate port with a SMTP email client running on port 25 so i should technically be able to send emails directly shouldnt i?

[ksg91]

have you edited php.ini of wamp server to configure smtp server?
Go and edit

Code: Select all

smtp_server =
smtp_port = 25
auth_username =
auth_password =

[gki]

I know,i am getting an error(Could not instantiate mail function) in php but why?

I wasn't talking about that.

I have IIS running on a separate port with a SMTP email client running on port 25 so i should technically be able to send emails directly shouldnt i?

Technically yes, but to prevent/reduce SPAM, most email services have their own white/black-lists of who is and who isn't allowed to send email. If you try to send an email to a Gmail account from your PC for example, you'll get something like "You are not authorized to send messages to this server. Use your ISP's SMTP server to relay messages".

[utgamer2004]

@KSG
Yes i already have...

utgamer2004 wrote:
I know,i am getting an error(Could not instantiate mail function) in php but why?

I wasn't talking about that.

So you think that theres something wrong on my side....hmm.....i thought it was because i didnt have a proper domain name that the function was not being instantiated(i know,silly of me but then ive been using the same function to send mails through a relay server and it works perfectly fine each time).

Technically yes, but to prevent/reduce SPAM, most email services have their own white/black-lists of who is and who isn't allowed to send email. If you try to send an email to a Gmail account from your PC for example, you'll get something like "You are not authorized to send messages to this server. Use your ISP's SMTP server to relay messages".

ill be happy enough even if my mail reaches the spam folder on any of my email accounts.Also,im unable to relay my mails through my ISP(smtp.vsnl.net),i get a NOT ON LOCAL NETWORK error each time i try to do so.Im using tata indicom broadbandand(which is serviced by vsnl) and i also have an email account on vsnl.net.

[gki]

ill be happy enough even if my mail reaches the spam folder on any of my email accounts.

The email won't be delivered at all.

Also,im unable to relay my mails through my ISP(smtp.vsnl.net),i get a NOT ON LOCAL NETWORK error each time i try to do so.

Then continue using Gmail.

[utgamer2004]

ill be happy enough even if my mail reaches the spam folder on any of my email accounts.

The email won't be delivered at all.

Also,im unable to relay my mails through my ISP(smtp.vsnl.net),i get a NOT ON LOCAL NETWORK error each time i try to do so.

Then continue using Gmail.

Oh well,thanks anyways!

[Ellimist]

If you want to send emails from your node, you need to have an MTA (mail transport agent) to forward the emails to the required mail servers. I don't know what MTA's are available for IIS, on my VPS running Debian lenny, I use Exim.

Remember, for your emails to reach safely (without getting filtered as spam), it's important for your node to have an rDNS record.

[utgamer2004]

Ok thanks,but doesnt IIS have a MTA built-in?
As for having a rDNS record,i will need a domain name wont i?

[Ellimist]

Ok thanks,but doesnt IIS have a MTA built-in?

I suppose so. This link may be of help.

As for having a rDNS record,i will need a domain name wont i?

A rDNS (PTR) record maps an IP to a hostname. You can get a free sub-domain from http://freedns.afraid.org/ and use it for the rDNS. It's also recommended to use a reciprocal A record to resolve the hostname to the IP.

[utgamer2004]

Ok thanks,but doesnt IIS have a MTA built-in?

I suppose so. This link may be of help.

Thanks that helped a little,but the link is really old,and both ASP.net and IIS have removed the use of code as described on that page.

PS-:Offtopic,do you think its worth the trouble if i install Ubuntu 64 bit on my rig to setup a web server.Thing is,i want to try out linux.
Also,how is debian?Im an avid programmer but i have no experience with linux except for maybe BOSS which i seldom use at my college.
I wish to install it alongside Windows 7 on a different partition.Also,i need to be able to run the following apps-:
Netbeans,g++,and a bittorrent client(any one will do).

[Ellimist]

PS-:Offtopic,do you think its worth the trouble if i install Ubuntu 64 bit on my rig to setup a web server.Thing is,i want to try out linux.
Also,how is debian?Im an avid programmer but i have no experience with linux except for maybe BOSS which i seldom use at my college.
I wish to install it alongside Windows 7 on a different partition.Also,i need to be able to run the following apps-:
Netbeans,g++,and a bittorrent client(any one will do).

Those things run natively on both Debian and Ubuntu.

I'll recommend Debian for a server, as it focusses on providing stable software rather than the latest one, which seems to be Ubuntu's philosophy. Although if you need a relatively newer version of a software, you can install it from backports.

However, as a newbie, you'll be better off with Ubuntu. It has an a relatively less-geeky userbase.

Download a distro ISO image, burn it, and follow he instructions and you'll have no difficulty in installing it.

[utgamer2004]

Ok,ive decided on using Ubuntu over debian for now,whats the difference between the desktop and server editions?
Will i be able to host on the desktop version?

[Ellimist]

Ok,ive decided on using Ubuntu over debian for now,whats the difference between the desktop and server editions?
Will i be able to host on the desktop version?

The server edition is optimized for use on a server and containes no bloat in the form of unneeded packages. The desktop version has a lot of things that are unneeded on a server, including, but not limited to frontend GUIs and utility softwares.

However, as I understand it, you have no RAM or processing power constraints and you do not expect much traffic on the server. The desktop edition should serve you just fine. Install a web server (Apache/Nginx/Lighttpd), PHP as a FastCGI process (the best way to run PHP, BTW), and mysqld and you are ready to host a standard web app.

There are a lot of tutorials on the web to get you started.