PHP Mail Function, Send Mail

[meanpc]

Can someone please explain to me the difference between PHP Mail Function and Sendmail?  I'm referring specifically to the dropdown  selection in the mail section of global configuration.  I am having an issue where some people are not receiving authentication emails and some are.  My setting is currently PHP Mail function, and I am wondering what the ramifications of switching to Sendmail are, if any.
Thanks
Lonnie

[kentaur]

Can someone please explain to me the difference between PHP Mail Function and Sendmail?  I'm referring specifically to the dropdown  selection in the mail section of global configuration.  I am having an issue where some people are not receiving authentication emails and some are.  My setting is currently PHP Mail function, and I am wondering what the ramifications of switching to Sendmail are, if any.
Thanks
Lonnie

Hi, have you found out more on this topic? It seems to me Joomla offers these option, but in reality it uses only one that I cannot find to tailor to me needs.

[Asphyx]

PHP mail uses the settings in PHP.INI to send email through sendmail (there is a config section for email in PHP.INI)
Sendmail is a direct path that lets you build email but requires you to build the header for it (php mail does this for you)
SMTP uses a dedicated email server to send mail through. It is similar to sending email with outlook to your ISP.

[kentaur]

PHP mail uses the settings in PHP.INI to send email through sendmail (there is a config section for email in PHP.INI)
Sendmail is a direct path that lets you build email but requires you to build the header for it (php mail does this for you)
SMTP uses a dedicated email server to send mail through. It is similar to sending email with outlook to your ISP.

How can I gain access to PHP.INI? Is it safe to temper with that file? Can I tailor the mailing system to my need, in this particular instance from latin-1 to either latin-2 or better, yet, to utf-8? (On the side: is "utf-8" or "utf8" is the proper notation for this set?

Thanks.

[Asphyx]

You have to talk to your ISP to get access to PHP.INI

It's dangerous only if you don't know what your doing...
If you are not confident then you should try and work this out with them anyway.

[rgfuller]

Mine works fine when using Sendmail and configured to use Google Aps SMTP -- but when I change the dropdown selection to SMTP (leaving all other settings the same) it stops working. Sendmail is obviously using SMTP, so why wont it work when picking SMTP?
Thanks for any clarification or help with this