Sendmail for contact form

March 3, 2014 5.5k views
toby
By:
toby
Hi there I followed the initial setup for Digital Ocean droplets (Ubuntu 13.04) and configuring an Nginx/PHP server - so far so good. However, simple PHP contact forms can't send mail. I've read about Sendmail, Postfix etc for this, but they seem like they require extensive troubleshooting and configuration just to be able to send email. Is there a simple way to be able to PHP mail() without worrying about configuring domains, users, worrying about spam or troubleshooting yet another complex config? Thanks.
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1 Answer
kamaln7 MOD March 4, 2014
The easiest way would be using a service such as Mandrill (which offers a nice free tier). You could install sendmail but if you decide to go that route, you'll need to set up SPF records to ensure that your mail doesn't get marked as spam: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-use-an-spf-record-to-prevent-spoofing-improve-e-mail-reliability

You can install sendmail by running the following command: 
sudo apt-get install sendmail
How To use an SPF Record to Prevent Spoofing & Improve E-mail Reliability
by Pablo Carranza
A carefully tailored SPF record will reduce the likelihood of your domain name getting fraudulently spoofed and keep your messages from getting flagged as spam before they reach your recipients.
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