SMTP Servers and BB Software

[bluestrobe]

I am hosting this message board software:
http://www.simplemachines.org/

On my own win2K server box with this installed:
http://www.wampserver.com/en/

Well, I got the message board up and running and found it had options for "sendmail" and SMTP' mail options. I searched all over for a simple SMTP server so I could resolve this problem. I found this program (Mercury):
http://www.pmail.com/overviews/ovw_mercury.htm

I set the mail server program up with my domain and proper port (25) and such. I however did not open this port up on my router due to the fact I want no inbound traffic to it to keep spammers from compromising it. I just want this to be for the message board and nothing else. I created a username with the smtp server and password and put them into the message board configuration. I am still getting an error on the message board when I send a test mail out to the members.

2: fsockopen() [<a href='function.fsockopen'>function.fsockopen</a>]: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: No such host is known.
File: D:\XXXXXX\Sources\Subs-Post.php
Line: 556

Anyone have any experience with this or know a better route? I would consider an online smtp server but I can't find one for a decent price and my ISP doesn't give me one by default.

 

[kamper]

That error message looks like you're getting a problem long before actually connecting to your smtp server. It can't even find what machine it's on, which is odd because they're on the same box. Where did you tell smf the smtp server was? Why would you even consider opening up a port on your router?

An alternative could be using gmail's smtp server, so long as you don't mind them setting all From: and Reply-To: headers to your gmail account.