By sja1 on

We have a corporate website built on Drupal 5, call it example.com. We are hosting the site on a dedicated server with 1&1, and they give me 2 options regarding the creation and management of our corporate email addresses (such as myname@example.com):

Option 1: use the mail server already installed on my dedicated server, in which case I configure email addresses using the Plesk control panel.

Option 2: use 1and1's dedicated mail server, in which case I create and manage the email addresses through our 1and1 account interface.

I am leaning towards option 2 as it would lessen the load on our own server, but am worried about Drupal not being able to send email. I know very little about email and email servers, but have three questions:

First, if I configure the DNS settings for the domain to use 1and1's dedicated server for our corporate email accounts, can Drupl still use the installed local server to send mail, or will I have to configure Drupal to use the external mail server as well?

Second, do you recommend the phpmailer module as the best way to enable drupal to use an external mail server?

Third, is there a performance hit or any performance issues to take into account when deciding between the local mail server and a third party mail server?

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Steve

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

vm’s picture

vm commented

drupal uses a php function, send mail() I think it's called, by default so it won't matter what server you are on.

If corporate the only issue I would think about is privacy, your email is now running through a 3rd party who has access to it.

sja1’s picture

sja1 commented

Thanks for your reply, VM. I'm not so concerned about privacy, because even if I use the local mail server on our dedicated box, that box is housed and run by 1and1. So whether or not I choose to use 1and1's dedicated email service, theoretically they could access our mail either way. So I'll just have to trust them not to nose around in our email.

My main concern is whether Drupal will still be able to send email if I set the DNS settings for the domain to use an email server that is not hosted on the same server as our drupal instance. From what I have read elsewhere, it seems that Drupal by default is set up to use a local mailserver on the same machine. So my worry is, will the local email server still be able to send mail if the domain's DNS is set to use a different, remote mail server?

Steve
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vm’s picture

vm commented

have you investigated the SMTP.module ? which allows drupal to connect through SMTP and thus not use php to send mail?

sja1’s picture

sja1 commented

I looked at smtp, but phpmailer looks perhaps to be a more complete module. But do I need either of them at all? Can I simply have my corporate email ( me@example.com) on a remote email server, and yet have drupal (www.example.com) send email from the email server that runs locally? And, even if I can do that... should I? Are there benefits to using a module such as phpmailer or smpt as opposed using the local mail server?

Steve
Revista Y AHORA QUÉ | Selectividad - Universidades - Foro Blog Chat Estudiantes

vm’s picture

vm commented

I don't have an answer for that my first reaction is drupal won't care. Obviously it will require some testing, or you hopping into IRC to the #drupal channel to talk with others with more knowledge above the general support levels.

sja1’s picture

sja1 commented

Thanks, I've never used IRC before, but maybe this is a good reason to start!

Steve
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TE5LA’s picture

TE5LA commented

I had a lot of trouble trying to get email working with Drupal at first and finally found a freeware mail server called ArGoSoft Mail Server Freeware which has been working great.

sja1’s picture

sja1 commented

Thanks Tesla for your suggestion, though I don't think I have a problem with the email server. It's working right now, I'm just worried about it not working if I configure my DNS to route our corporate email (based on same domain as my website) to an email server that is not on the same box as our website.

Steve
Revista Y AHORA QUÉ | Selectividad - Universidades - Foro Blog Chat Estudiantes

pcmann2004’s picture

pcmann2004 commented

i read through this and it really didnt "work" for me. my situation is that i would like to marry postfix to send/recieve through my gmail acct (port other than 25). and i have a dedicated postfix server running on ubuntu 6.06 that ip 10.203.1.10 and my web server is 10.203.1.9 is there a way to make drupal (or any site that i host) look for 10.203.1.10 and send through that. and make postfix send through gmail. please help, im at bind here. thanks!!!!