XF 2.2 Email address has extra stuff on the end

[Alvin63]

So my forum email address (via the server) - the one that sends out emails to users - is all working really well. The only thing is the title is untidy. On received emails the sender is admin@domainname.co.uk via srv.---.main-hosting.eu

The dashes are a number. It's not really a problem but how would I get rid of the bit after .co.uk? My hosting site says I'm using php sendmail() function for email.

 

[Chromaniac]

Yeah. Try to switch to SMTP format here: admin.php?options/groups/emailOptions/.

 

[Alvin63]

Thanks. Is it as easy as just changing to SMTP? I asked my hosting place and they said it could need a professional developer to change to SMTP at the host side. But if it's built into Xenforo. Is that all I need to do? Select SMTP? Or something at the server end as well.

 

[Chromaniac]

not really. in my experience, email is sort of complicated.

smtp is how you send mails through an email client like outlook. if your server offers email services, and you configure an email account for your domain (like admin@domain.tld) on it, you get smtp details to use for sending mails. pop/imap are for receiving mails. this should logically work fine. check your hosting management panel and see what it offers.

some of us, outsource it to third party services like amazon ses which handle all emails at a cost. amazon ses type services are a safe option but requires a bit more configuration as you first need to connect it to your domain and then configure an email account and get smtp details for entering in xenforo backend.

to get best email delivery experience, there are some other features that needs to be configured like spf, dkim, dmarc. this is sort of easier to do with something like amazon ses. once everything is configured properly, your emails should be safe for delivery. very less chances of them landing in spam folder of your users.

i would suggest testing it with your host's email service first and if it does not work well, exploring amazon ses. it would take a bit of exploring ses to get it configured properly.

 

[Alvin63]

Thanks very much. Yes it does seem complicated. It already has MX, SPF and DKIM configured via the server. Doesn't seem to be an option for DMARC. Server said it would probably need paying a developer to change if from sendmail() function to PHP mailer using SMTP protocol. Says it needs a lot of developer knowledge. No idea what PHP mailer is. They have an article on how to do it and it looks beyond me.

 

[Chromaniac]

honestly, if you are ok with paying a dollar for around 10,000 mails (iirc)... consider switching to ses. amazon ses backend has unified panel that explains you everything that needs to be done. it has been working great for me. managing email on server was painful. now i just get a monthly bill just above 1 dollar.

though ses might not be best for you if your server sends a LOT OF MAIL. some folks here with huge forums have mentioned before that amazon has a limit on number of mails that can be sent per second and as a result some mails might never get delivered. though i imagine, amazon lets you apply for limit increase. i have not hit any such limit so haven't looked into it so far. my daily mails are under 500 so it works out great for my purpose.

the one you are using... i believe mails are sent by the server using php which means the hosting company's name is added to the sent from field. if the mail delivery is stable and there are no complaints about mails landing in spam, i guess it should be fine to keep it the way it is.

 

[Alvin63]

Thanks yes I think it works fine. One user commented on the extra server info on sent emails - it does look unusual but what the heck - not urgent. Thanks. I'll look into the Amazon option. At present I don't send many emails. That might change.