[Mediawiki-l] SMTP settings in LocalSetting.php

[Monahon, Peter B.]

> Earlier: "... there's nothing really 
> special about most setups that 
> work, probably it's the ones that 
> don't that are interesting :-) ..."

Peter Blaise agrees:  However, it's the ones that work that set the
example, and if they are not documented, then those of us with MediaWiki
setups that do not work have scant few examples to study and learn from,
so we wallow in frustration!  :(  Hence my hunger for documentation on
working examples!  I have many success I've shared here and on
http://www.mediawiki,org/ and I'd like to share more, I'm just stuck on
SMTP at the moment.

--

> Earlier: "... my PHP error messages 
> go to Apache's error_log ..."

Peter Blaise responds: Wow - thanks for drawing my attention to error
LOGs - I just checked:

C:\www\apache2\logs

access.log       5,154 KB
error.log      363,698 KB
install.log                4 KB

So maybe I should back 'em up and start fresh ones more frequently
(meaning I have to stop the Apache server more often)!  What the heck am
I doing with 1/3rd mb of errors?!?  :-(  I have some studying to do!

One endless error was the call for missing faveicon.ico, so I built one
using free http://www.irfanview.com/ software to resize of our logo to
32x32 pixels, and save as "icon"-file-type named "faveicon.ico" in
C:\www\apache2\htdocs, then visitors will see it in their "My Favorites"
next to our link.  I digress.

--

> Earlier: "... my working SMTP server 
> is 'private' according to your criteria - 
> running on localhost. $wgSMTP is not 
> set, so MediaWiki will be using PHP's 
> build in mail() function. The email 
> related settings I can see in 
> LocalSettings.php are:
> $wgEnableEmail = true;
> $wgEnableUserEmail = true;
> $wgEmergencyContact = "oliver at gtwm.co.uk";
> $wgPasswordSender = "oliver at gtwm.co.uk";
> ## For a detailed description of the following switches see
> ## http://meta.wikimedia.org/Enotif and 
> ## http://meta.wikimedia.org/Eauthent
> ## There are many more options for fine tuning available see
> ## /includes/DefaultSettings.php
> ## UPO means: this is also a user preference option
> $wgEnotifUserTalk = true; # UPO
> $wgEnotifWatchlist = true; # UPO
> $wgEmailAuthentication = true;

Hey, I just found this in php.ini in the php directory:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25
; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = me at example.com
; For Unix only.  You may supply arguments as well (default: "sendmail
-t -i").
;sendmail_path =
; Force the addition of the specified parameters to be passed as extra
parameters
; to the sendmail binary. These parameters will always replace the value
of
; the 5th parameter to mail(), even in safe mode.
;mail.force_extra_parameters =

Now I wonder if there's a coordinated suite of criteria and parameters
all over the place to make send mail work with whatever resources are
available (SMTP being either private, Intranet, ISP, or Internet).

--

> Earlier: "... Is there a reason this 
> won't work for you? ..."

Peter Blaise responds:  Yes, I have a penultimate challenge or working
in catch-22-ville, run by zombie volunteer bureaucrats.  When I ask for
a link to a document showing our in-house SMTP server settings, I get,
"Let's have a meeting so you can explain what you are going to do, and
the person to meet with is out until next week ..." and so on.  I wasn't
asking for permission, I was asking for settings!  However, since I'm
inside an aggressive, undocumented firewall, I'm not sure if my failures
are my own settings, or someone actively blocking something, like port
25, hence my request for samples of working ones from anybody else.  If
I make mine look exactly like someone else's working SMTP, say, even
using GMail, then I have a golden example to start from!

Does anyone else have some collected settings that make SMTP work for
you?  I'd LOVE to see a comprehensive page (or four) on
http://www.mediawiki.org/ - who wants to build 'em?

-- Peter Blaise