eMail problems

[GrandmaJ]

I have my Zen cart set up so I receive copies of order confirmations as well as mail sent from the store's contact form. I had the E-Mail Transport Method set as "sendmail" for months, but it suddenly stopped working a couple of weeks ago. So I switched to the "PHP" method. I didn't change any other settings. Now, I am getting mail from the site's contact form just fine, but still no order confirmations.

I never was able to understand the mail settings all that well anyway, but I read that the "SMPT" methods are for Windows hosts, and I'm positive my host (HostGator) is Linux. So I'm totally lost... where do I go from here?


If it helps, like I said my host is HostGator but my Zen settings have been sending all mail to my Yahoo.com account.

[helenthemum]

We are having the same issue.

Ourt transport method is sendmail and has worked fine up until 3 weeks ago too.

We get no order confirmation emails, and only the occasional contact us email.

The hosting company is streamline.net, and the server we use is a linux box.

We have changed no settings, knowingly, that could ahve aaffected it.. though I am hoping that *is* the issue so a simple switch will make it all hunky dory again..

Anyone have any suggestions?

[DrByte]

1. What did your hosting company change 3 weeks ago on their servers?
2. What email address is *not* receiving the messages? Is it a "free" address like yahoo/hotmail?

[helenthemum]

1. We have raised a ticket to ask about server status and updates in case there has been an under-the-covers php upgrade. While we are waiting we are asking if this is simply a configuration issue on our zencart

2. The email address is also hosted by the hosting company. The email adress is of the format [email protected]... etc

[DrByte]

While we are waiting we are asking if this is simply a configuration issue on our zencart

It's possible that your hosting company has changed their server configuration, thus requiring that you change your Zen Cart configuration to match the new details.

Using "PHP" instead of "sendmail" is often more reliable as a general rule.
Using "SMTP" or "SMTPAUTH" is generally used when the mailserver runs separate from the main webserver and thus requires a login of sorts in order to send messages.

You could always try a different transport to see what happens. Remember that the two SMTP choices require that you fill in the various SMTP settings at the bottom of the list of email settings.

[GrandmaJ]

Dr. Byte seems to have hit the nail on the head. Our webhost's eMail is slow, so for that reason we have all of our Zen cart settings sending emails to a Yahoo.com address. Apparently, the host changed something so we can still have all the settings we were using in Zen cart exactly the same *except* the "FROM" address. The tech explains it better than I, so i'll copy/paste here:
"If you have your From address set to an email address which doesn't
exist on our server it will be blocked as forged mail by our new
mail gateways. It's important you send the mail from an
address which is existent on the server."

[FONT=Verdana]For us, this was simply a matter of putting [email protected] in the FROM
setting of Zen Cart, but then leaving all the yahoo.com addresses that we want the
mails to go to the same. At least it works for now anyway.
[/FONT]