[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #7284: Allow wordpress at domain to be set to a user-specified address, and allow configuring SMTP server - for phpmailer (was: Allow wordpress emails to be sent from a user-specified address)

[WordPress Trac]

#7284: Allow wordpress at domain to be set to a user-specified address, and allow
configuring SMTP server - for phpmailer
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  johnhennmacc    |        Type:  defect (bug)
   Status:  new             |    Priority:  normal      
Milestone:  Future Release  |   Component:  Mail        
  Version:  3.0.1           |    Severity:  normal      
 Keywords:  needs-patch     |  
----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
Changes (by jasmineaura):

  * version:  2.7 => 3.0.1
  * type:  feature request => defect (bug)


Comment:

 This is a must. Surprised this has not been implemented till 3.1. This has
 been standing for over 3 years now (see Ticket #5007)

 @Denis-de-Bernardy:
 Try sending an email without a from field to google/hotmail/yahoo
 /whatever-domain you like, and see if you get it. Certainly, not! Not only
 is a from field required, many mail servers out there check the envelope
 sender's domain-name to see if it exists in DNS (properly resolves) and
 some do check if it *has a MX record* (MX = Mail eXchange; an SMTP
 server). Definitely scratch that idea, please..

 Several issues, besides the envelope sender's MX record checking issue
 arise, and which are probably affecting many users (especially those in
 virtually-hosted environments) without even knowing it:
 1. If the domain at which wordpress is hosted does not have mail server
 setup, any email destined to a non-existent user will be lost. Admin
 doesn't even get notified that the newly registered user (or whatever
 else) does not have a valid/active email. Not very cool when your blog
 gets flooded with spam-bots' registrations.

 2. If wordpress is hosted on a sub-domain (say blog.mydomain.com),
 wordpress will send out mails as wordpress at blog.mydomain.com. Certainly,
 people don't create mail-domains called "@blog.mydomain.com". Wanting to
 catch emails sent by that address and bounced because the
 visitor's/registrant's email does not exist means one would either have
 to: a. edit wordpress hardcoded code in *several places*, or, b. create a
 mail-domain for the "blog" sub-domain and then create a
 mailbox/forward/alias for wordpress at blog.domain.com, both quite tedious,
 and quite undesirable, because a. on wordpress upgrade, the code-edits are
 lost (and wanting to change that email later means digging again through
 several places in the code), and b. changing subdomains means needing to
 delete old subdomain-mail setup, creating a new subdomain-mail setup and
 consequently new wordpress account on that mail sub-domain.

 3. Some hosting providers do not allow sending mail from the server to the
 outside world (blocking all outgoing tcp connections to destination port
 25) except through a designated SMTP server. There should be at least the
 ability to define SMTP server to use for phpmailer in wp-config.php!

 Hard-coding this stuff all over wordpress code-base is not only bad, it's
 a complete mess..

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7284#comment:6>
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