problem with php mail 'From' header

Question

Hi,

I'm building a website that sends and email to a user when he registers.

My code (the gist of it):

<?php
$to = "[email protected]";
$subject = "Test mail";
$message = "Hello! \nThis is a simple email message.";

$headers = "From: [email protected]";
$headers .= "\r\nReply-To: [email protected]";
$headers .= "\r\nX-Mailer: PHP/".phpversion();

mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);

echo "Mail Sent.";
?> 

the problem is that when the mail is delivered, the from header remains [email protected], while reply-to gets changed to the specified value.

box347.bluehost.com is the hostname of the server on which the website is hosted.

So what am I doing wrong? What can I do to get the "From" address the same as the reply-to address?

Is it something I'm doing wrong, or is the web host playing foul?

Thanks,
jrh

Answer 1

In order to prevent phishing, some mail servers prevent the From from being rewritten.

Answer 2

Edit: I just noted that you are trying to use a gmail address as the from value. This is not going to work, and the ISP is right in overwriting it. If you want to redirect the replies to your outgoing messages, use reply-to.

A workaround for valid addresses that works with many ISPs:

try adding a fifth parameter to your mail() command:

mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers,"-f [email protected]");

Answer 3

The web host is not really playing foul. It's not strictly according to the rules - but compared with some some of the amazing inventions intended to prevent spam, its not a particularly bad one.

If you really do want to send mail from '@gmail.com' why not just use the gmail SMTP service? If you can't reconfigure the server where PHP is running, then there are lots of email wrapper tools out there which allow you to specify a custom SMTP relay phpmailer springs to mind.

C.