Could not receive Password Forgotten Email

[rachalmers]

Ok, this is really bad.

Zen Cart v1.3.8a/v1.3.8


I have tried PHP. it won't send the email. dies with errors

I've tried with sendmail, as shown below. It tells me it works, but I never see the email.

Module: direct_email

To: Robert Chalmers [[email protected]]
From: Skin Care Australia [[email protected]]
Sent: 2010-01-22 00:34:51
Subject: test from zencart

Message Excerpt:

yes, well.......


I've tried with SMTP

ERROR: Failed sending email to: "Robert Chalmers" with subject: "test from zencart" The following From address failed: [email protected]

and it fails no matter what address I use in the From field.

...
now, sendmail-f appears to work as well as sendmail.
Success: E-mail #2 has been resent to [email protected]


SMTPAUTH fails.
ERROR: Failed sending email to: "Robert Chalmers" with subject: "test from zencart" The following From address failed: [email protected]

QMAIL appears to work - and really quickly too.
Success: E-mail #2 has been resent to [email protected]


Summary:
sendmail takes forever to process the email. I mean like about 5 minutes. appears to work. but I get no email

sendmail-f the same.

qmail appears to send the mail, and processes it very quickly. milliseconds, like it should.

Nothing else even looks like sending mail, see errors above.

To date, I have not received one single email from the system. !!!!

Now as this whole thing relies on email to do business - this critical part of the system should be rock solid.

I'm on a standard hosting server, alldomains.com on a linux server. Everything else I run has no problems with email. moodle, and a number of others.


now this is really ODD. ODD I say. I have another ecommerce site, with zen-cart installed, on the same hosting server, and it uses PHP ---- and works with NO ERRORS - except of course it wont send the lost password. However - all other email works fine ???

go figgure



I don't understand why this one is failing....

So any authoritative assistance would be really help full...

thanks guys.

[rachalmers]

Ok, it seems that mail from the ADMIN is failing.

I tried on my live site, where I sell audio-books etc, on the radio station site, http://www.quantum-radio.net/audio_zen/

went into Admin, and Tools, send email - and guess what.

Email Error: Could not instantiate mail function. Please check Admin->Configuration->Email Options->Email Transport.

Now this site works for customers - although I haven't had a password needing to be resent yet.

But - as Admin, PHP doesn't work to send email, giving the error above. Apparently - as a customer, it works for them.


what's up doc.

[RodG]

Regarding zen-cart and email.

I don't profess to have all, or even any of the answers, but I do know several important facts that are relevant and worth keeping in mind.

Firstly, not all ISP's use the same mail program(s), and those that do invariably have thier own settings and configurations in regards to what is, or isn't allowed.

This is why zen-cart offers so many different email options. There is almost certainly at least one setting/option avaialble that will work with any given ISP. Some systems may even support several different methods.

The trick is figuring out what your particular ISP supports and allows.

I have tried PHP. it won't send the email. dies with errors

This suggests that your ISP dissallows mail sent via this method.

I've tried with sendmail, as shown below. It tells me it works, but I never see the email.

Give it a few days and the mail will probably be returned to you as being undeliverable.

To: Robert Chalmers [[email protected]]
From: Skin Care Australia [[email protected]]

Is [email protected] a valid email address on the server hosting your zencart? If not, this email will probably fail because the system will reject at as not being sent by an authorised sender.

I've tried with SMTP

This one is probably the least likely to work on a linux based system. Very few ISP's allow for this type of access, if it does work it often indicates that the server has been setup in such a way that it is vulnerable to abuse because very few (if any) checks and balances are in place.

and it fails no matter what address I use in the From field.

Have you tried using [email protected] in the 'from' field?
If anything is going to work it will be this.

now, sendmail-f appears to work as well as sendmail.
Success: E-mail #2 has been resent to [email protected]

The 'success' here simply means that the sendmail program has accepted the mail. It doesn't suggest that the mail has actually left the server. It is possibly sitting in an outgoing mail spool (for any number of reasons).

SMTPAUTH fails.
ERROR: Failed sending email to: "Robert Chalmers" with subject: "test from zencart" The following From address failed: [email protected]

SMTPAUTH will only work if your server requires SMTP authorization. It is similar to SMTP in functionality, in that the mail is sent direct (rather than via sendmail) , but to avoid the abuse that is possible with regular SMTP this method requires authentication, which means you must define a valid username, password, host and port in the zencart settings. SMTPAUTH is generally only needed/required if you are using your ISP's servers as a relay. I would suggest that since zencart and the mailserver it uses are in the same domain this method probably isn't widely used. It would probably be one of the last methods that I'd be trying.

QMAIL appears to work - and really quickly too.
Success: E-mail #2 has been resent to [email protected]

This is where things get a liitle 'blurred' (in my opinion). Sendmail and Qmail both serve the same purpose, and generally speaking only one or the other will be used by your ISP.
The fact that BOTH appear to work with your ISP would imply a 'symbolic link' is being used, so when the mail is sent to sendmail it is actually going to Qmail (or vice verci). It would be wise to verify with your ISP which of these mail agents are actually being used and select the appropriate one. If set correctly it usually won't make a difference, but if your ISP haapens to have both programs avaialble and only one of them configured it is easy for mail to end up in a 'black hole'.

Summary:
sendmail takes forever to process the email. I mean like about 5 minutes. appears to work. but I get no email

sendmail-f the same.

qmail appears to send the mail, and processes it very quickly. milliseconds, like it should.

I find this a bit disconcerting, because as stated above, sendmail and qmail are different programs that perform the same purpose. If both appear to work (and work correctly) it is (usually) by virtue of a symbolic link. The fact that you are getting different results implies both programs are installed. This will result in an administration nightmare, and I'd go as far to say that only one of them has actually be configured. Check with your host to see which one they are actually using.

I'm on a standard hosting server,

Yes, but which 'standard' (The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from) <grin>

alldomains.com on a linux server. Everything else I run has no problems with email. moodle, and a number of others.

Wow. Moodle eh? That took me a bit by surprise. I guess you have something to do with the education system? I always though I'd be the only person here that's even heard of moodle (as popular as it is).

now this is really ODD. ODD I say. I have another ecommerce site, with zen-cart installed, on the same hosting server, and it uses PHP ---- and works with NO ERRORS - except of course it wont send the lost password. However - all other email works fine ???

go figgure

This may (even probably) has something to do with the 'from' addresses being used? Some systems are pretty strict in this regard and will only accept/send emails from 'known' addresses.

I don't understand why this one is failing....
So any authoritative assistance would be really help full...

thanks guys.

I'm not going to be as bold to say I'm an authority in this regard, and I certainly can't say why yours is failing, but I can say that due to the sheer number of spammers and would-be abusers 'out there', most systems tend to get locked down pretty tight these days and it can sometimes take a bit of juggling and experimenting to find what works and what doesn't. There is no single answer or method that will work for everyone.

I do have a couple of suggestions though.

1. Try to get your webhost involved. They will have log files that will let them know *exactly* what is going on.

2. If your host gives you cPanel for administration purposes have a look for the 'Mail troubleshooting' or the 'Email Delivery Route' module(s).
Enter a few email addresses, eg [email protected] It may provide a few clues as to what is going on (especially if the test mails are to one of your own aliases on the same server).

Anyway, as I said at the start, I've no real answers or solutions for you, I'm just imparting a few things that I know that may or may not be helpful.

Cheers
Rod

[rachalmers]

Hi Rod,
thanks for the breakdown. However - tried all the above.
I've been working with coding for donkeys years now - and have countless other packages all running fine on the server. Some quite complex like Moodle, some as simple as instant downloads for audiobooks, and a couple of ecommerce sites. any number of mailers, like news letter subscriptions etc etc.

phpinfo tells me that the linux server is running sendmail. In addition to this, the webmail side, that I don't use, uses qmail.

all those email addresses you see are valid and belong to my domains, hosted on this same server.

Well. Only recently taken up zen-cart - and what do you know. the core of the product - the email system - is a real dog.
I've wandered across the forums, and the internet looking for answers, and as usual .... nada. although there are many many people having email problems. So I'm not alone.

All of the above options I tried, were to see just what would work and what wouldn't. As it turns out - nothing works. In that I still haven't received even one email from the system. Oh sorry. My son tried a purchase on the audiobook site I ran up, and he got a text message back as an Order Confirmation. That's the only email I've ever seen from both systems. I thought the audiobooks one was working but it's not after all - only that order confirmation.
So of all the software I have installed - only zen-cart wont deal with email properly. So I can say with confidence that it's not the ISP/Hosting service or server. It's not anything else but zen-cart as far as I can see.

the email-archive addon tells me that email has been sent from the various tests - but there's no sign of it. So I need to go deeper it seems.

so it looks like I'm going to have to delve into the code and try and see what is happening. what a pain. A real pain.

Thanks for your thoughts on the subject Rod. All input is very welcome in case I miss something - as I'm sure I will :-)

cheers
Robert

[RodG]

Well. Only recently taken up zen-cart - and what do you know. the core of the product - the email system - is a real dog.
I've wandered across the forums, and the internet looking for answers, and as usual .... nada. although there are many many people having email problems. So I'm not alone.

I have no doubts that you are not alone, and I do apologise if I told you many things you already knew. Hopefully I didn't appear to be condescending?

All of the above options I tried, were to see just what would work and what wouldn't.

Yes, it WAS pretty obvious that you had tried many things to see what did and didn't work.

As it turns out - nothing works. In that I still haven't received even one email from the system. Oh sorry. My son tried a purchase on the audiobook site I ran up, and he got a text message back as an Order Confirmation. That's the only email I've ever seen from both systems. I thought the audiobooks one was working but it's not after all - only that order confirmation.

I'm sure that this is as puzzleing to you as it is to me. As you know, computers are so pedantic they either work or they don't work. To have something partly work (or work sometimes) is really extremely unusual, and there is always a cause for it. It make me wonder what is different between the order confirmation that you did receive and all the mails that you aren't recieving.

So of all the software I have installed - only zen-cart wont deal with email properly. So I can say with confidence that it's not the ISP/Hosting service or server. It's not anything else but zen-cart as far as I can see.

I'd really like to agree with you on this, but there are many of us that don't appear to be having any problems with emails, so even though it clearly has *something* to do with zen-cart, the actual problem is a bit more subtle than that, and it would suggest that it has something to do with a configuration setting OR some sort of compatibilty issue with some hosts only.

the email-archive addon tells me that email has been sent from the various tests - but there's no sign of it. So I need to go deeper it seems.

so it looks like I'm going to have to delve into the code and try and see what is happening. what a pain. A real pain.

I still reckon that getting your ISP involved (assuming you don't have access to the mail log files) would be the easiest next step. At least their findings may give a clue as to where you should be looking.

Thanks for your thoughts on the subject Rod. All input is very welcome in case I miss something - as I'm sure I will :-)

Well, we do all miss things at times - so tossing considered ideas and thoughts around is often all it takes.

I'm pretty much out of ideas. I am convinced that the log files will hold the key to the problem (but not necesarily the solution ).

Cheers
Rod

[rachalmers]

I just checked the Moodle install. It uses PHP for mail, and is working fine? Has done for over a year and over a thousand students.

PHP in zen doesn't work, returning an 'insubstantiate' error message.

hmmm

[rachalmers]

and I see that in the osCommerce forums, the same problems are being talked about.
I'm suspecting that it's a problem in the zen mail handling interface.
The fact that some work and some don't is probably a factor of poorly configured host/server mail handlers that let anything through, rather than correctly configured zen installations.

as I said, any number of other packages on my system work fine. Zen doesn't.

When I find a solution to this, I'll post it for all to see.

[rachalmers]

FIXED

Ok, from a posting by Bosh, 18th of November 2008 ....

I grabbed the new version of phpMailer and followed what Bosh did - and it now works.
The phpmailer class that comes with the distribution is ANCIENT.

Firstly - check if your system is using php4 or 5. If using 5, install the new bits. Piece of cake - couldn't be easier.
If you are using php4, don't know. There is a new mailer for php4 on the same sourceforge site anyw2ay. OWuldn't hurt to upgrade.

Thanks Bosh. you're a legend.

OK peeps,

I''ll tell you I've found out so far and what I've done about it. I'm not saying
the issue has gone away yet but now Nochex receives whats being sent, whatever
that is because is complains with a wrong "email address" or "Merchant ID". But
that should be fixable.

Fistly, I examined the code /include/classes/class.phpmailer.php. The first thing
that struck me was - it's old and it really shouldn't be sitting ontop of PHP 5.x.x.
Your host is using PHP 5.x.x aren't they, perhaps you should move.

Anyway I went here; phpmailer.codeworxtech.com/index.php
and downloaded PHPMailer for PHP5/6 and unzipped/tar'd them into a tempory directory.

Secondly, after doing a few eyeball checks (I'm not that cavalier), I did
this ...
1. replaced - /include/classes/class.phpmailer.php
2. replaced - /include/classes/class.smtp.php
3. added - /include/classes/class.pop3.php

also in /include/classes/support/ I replaced all the language files provided
in the download. Although I only needed the English one, I like to be consistant.

Now, as I said, more testing is required on the PHP side before I'm satisfied and
it's unlikely I'll be using SMPT so I won't be testing that. Perhaps someone
else who requires SMPT would undertake that and provide some feedback for others
who might want to use it

As for myself, when I'm satisfied with my testing I'll tell you here whether
its broken anywhere or that its all OK.


hope this helps - if I find any problems I'll see if I can fix them and post the solution. Hopefully this one is fixed.

[RodG]

and I see that in the osCommerce forums, the same problems are being talked about.
I'm suspecting that it's a problem in the zen mail handling interface.
The fact that some work and some don't is probably a factor of poorly configured host/server mail handlers that let anything through, rather than correctly configured zen installations.

as I said, any number of other packages on my system work fine. Zen doesn't.

When I find a solution to this, I'll post it for all to see.

Just out of curiosity, what version of PHP are you using?

Is it possible that this problem only affects those using PHP5.3 (which is also known to cause several other problems?).

I'm, still clutching at straws here because although this may explain the problem using the PHP mailer it wouldn't/shouldn't affect things when using sendmail ... perhaps.

On the other hand, if the PHP mailer works with moodle then I can't see why it wouldn't work with zencart.

Even though this issue doesn't currently affect me or any of the sites I've worked on it is certainly something I have a high interest in, because whatever the cause I'm sure I'm going to come across the same problems at some stage in the furture... it would be nice to be prepared for it

I only wish I could offer more help or insights.

Cheers
Rod