PaulHInstincticve
Programmer
I have a script which generates emails from a web page during an ordering process. The script is part of a function where parameters such as the from address, to address, subject and message body are passed to the function to generate the CDONTS email. I have about 12 customers using this application without any problems at all but one customer who is reporting 'occasional' missing emails. The application is an event booking system for a membership. At the end of the process a confirmation email is generated to
The member
The Office
The Office on a backup email address
When the email is sent to the member the to address is obviously the members email address and the from address is the office email address which is a valid mailbox name on the webserver. When the office copy is generated, however, the from address used is the member email address (in order that the office can just hit 'reply' and the 'to' address is the office mailbox on the webserver that is sending the email.
Typically for the customer experiencing problems they might get 30 emails through successfully then one will just disappear into nowhere, they might get another successfully and then another missing one. In most (but not all cases) the member copy does get through though.
We have raised this with the customers ISP (Fasthosts who host several other of our customers who do not experience these problems) and we have asked for access to mail logs to see if we can trace what is going wrong (particularly as the webmaster involved was very suspicious of antispam features initially although when I added debug code so that we also got a copy of the email we got all but the ones that the office missed!). The ISPs reaction was that 'it is always better to use a from address which is a valid mailbox on the server rather than the members address'. We can see where they are coming from here but do not want to lose the 'reply' functionality and we question why 95% or more emails are getting through if we are doing it wrong. Afterall computers do as they are told and are consistent, we are not seeing consistency here, surely they should all fail if this were the case? They are also telling us to use JMAIL instead of CDONTS. I appreciate that this is an alternate mail system but wish to avoid unnecessary development if it is not guaranteed to solve the problem, afterall its not as though we can write a simple program to test a JMAIL solution because the fault happens so occasionally it is impossible to replicate.
Has anyone else had any problems like this? Would you agree with Fasthosts policy on the 'from' address or are they clutching at straws? Is JMAIL significantly superior to CDONTS? Any help really appreciated. The code in my function is copied below
Sub Sendemail (cto, csubject, cfrom, cbody)
' send a cdonts email
Dim objmail
Set objMail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.Newmail")
objMail.To = cto
objMail.Subject = csubject
objMail.From = cfrom
objMail.Body = cbody
objMail.Send
Set objMail = Nothing
end sub
Paul
The member
The Office
The Office on a backup email address
When the email is sent to the member the to address is obviously the members email address and the from address is the office email address which is a valid mailbox name on the webserver. When the office copy is generated, however, the from address used is the member email address (in order that the office can just hit 'reply' and the 'to' address is the office mailbox on the webserver that is sending the email.
Typically for the customer experiencing problems they might get 30 emails through successfully then one will just disappear into nowhere, they might get another successfully and then another missing one. In most (but not all cases) the member copy does get through though.
We have raised this with the customers ISP (Fasthosts who host several other of our customers who do not experience these problems) and we have asked for access to mail logs to see if we can trace what is going wrong (particularly as the webmaster involved was very suspicious of antispam features initially although when I added debug code so that we also got a copy of the email we got all but the ones that the office missed!). The ISPs reaction was that 'it is always better to use a from address which is a valid mailbox on the server rather than the members address'. We can see where they are coming from here but do not want to lose the 'reply' functionality and we question why 95% or more emails are getting through if we are doing it wrong. Afterall computers do as they are told and are consistent, we are not seeing consistency here, surely they should all fail if this were the case? They are also telling us to use JMAIL instead of CDONTS. I appreciate that this is an alternate mail system but wish to avoid unnecessary development if it is not guaranteed to solve the problem, afterall its not as though we can write a simple program to test a JMAIL solution because the fault happens so occasionally it is impossible to replicate.
Has anyone else had any problems like this? Would you agree with Fasthosts policy on the 'from' address or are they clutching at straws? Is JMAIL significantly superior to CDONTS? Any help really appreciated. The code in my function is copied below
Sub Sendemail (cto, csubject, cfrom, cbody)
' send a cdonts email
Dim objmail
Set objMail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.Newmail")
objMail.To = cto
objMail.Subject = csubject
objMail.From = cfrom
objMail.Body = cbody
objMail.Send
Set objMail = Nothing
end sub
Paul