Sending mails from phpBB : options, ways and methods - which one is the best and safest!?

[tarifa]

hello dear neowin experts good day dear community,

 

 

i just installed a phpBB board: now i am going to configure all the things...

 

 

here we go:

Sending mails from the board - the ways, methods and options  - i just managed to set up the board; now i want to do all the faingrained configuration and settings eg such as the mail-Sending-setup:

I just  dived into the topic and read some interesting articles _ eg here:

Quote

For security reasons, sending e-mail using the internal PHP mail() function is disabled on most of our shared servers. By default, phpBB sends e-mail via the internal PHP mail() function. You will need to switch over to using SMTP authentication for e-mails to work. phpBB has built-in settings that allow you to control whether phpBB sends e-mail via SMTP or using the mail() function.

Switching to SMTP
    Set up an E-mail Account in your hosting control panel for use with phpBB
    Log in to your phpBB Admin Area
 

 

note: is this true: running the board on base of the internal PHP-mail () functions is risky and dangerous!?
Well - then i think we have to stick to the send e-mail via SMTP or using the mail() function.:

That said - we have to have closer look at the following settings:

Quote

  At Use SMTP server for email, check the “Yes” radio button
   For SMTP server address, enter “localhost”
  Tip: If you know your e-mail is handled by a different server to your website, contact your provider to find out what the ‘SMTP server address’ is for your mail server
  In SMTP username, enter the e-mail address you created at the first step (or perhaps a different e-mail address you want to use)
  In SMTP password, enter the password of that e-mail account
  Click “Submit” at the bottom of the page to save the changes
  Done

cf: https://www.eukhost.com/kb/using-smtp-for-sending-e-mail-in-phpbb-php-mail-alternative/

well to make sure that i have the right understanding of  the necessary settings for SMTP email sent via the gmail account.

I use phpBB 3.3.0, OpenSuse and MariaDB, php 7.2xy.

i want to configure and have a closer look at the "Send a test email"  - if it is  working correctly

well - the general settings that i need to setup is the following - they are these:

Quote

Contact email address: username@gmail.com

Return email address: username@gmail.com
Use SMTP server for email: Yes
SMTP server address: smtp.gmail.com (without ssl: !!)
SMTP server port: 587
Authentication method for SMTP: LOGIN
SMTP username: username@gmail.com
SMTP password: password
For me any other settings like 465 port or ssl://smtp.gmail.com, or tsl://.. or PLAIN , or any combination is not working.

regarding the rest: It's also possible that GMail has finally turned off the SSL and TLS 1.0 support on the SMTP servers you are using, and you do need to allow phpBB to use TLS now. TLS stands for Transport Layer Security.

By the way: is it here important to make a difference between implicit and explicit TLS!?

Quote

For what it's worth, sometimes it is necessary to make a difference between "implicit TLS" and "explicit TLS". For implicit TLS we allways must use the tls:// prefix, same as you used the ssl:// prefix when using SSL. And you must use port 465, or whichever port(s) the SMTP server had supported SSL on.

For explicit TLS we don't use the tls:// prefix. And you must use port 587, or whichever other ports the SMTP server might also support explicit TLS on.
The difference between explicit and implicit is just in "how" the TLS negotiation gets initiated, as well as exactly "when" it must be initiated. That said: in both cases we end up with a TLS encrypted connection before any authentication or mail information is sent over the connection. Some SMTP servers support both implicit and explicit TLS, while others might only support explicit TLS. Looks like Gmail supports both.

 

well first of all: the question is: is this true: running the board on base of the internal PHP-mail () functions is risky and dangerous!?
Well - then i think we have to stick to the send e-mail via SMTP or using the mail() function.:

 

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by tarifa