Problems receiving e-mails

[Jamespaterson]

Hi

I can't seem to get actinic to mail to work at all!!

Ive tried using localhost, mail.vintageamethyst.co.uk with passwords entered and without but receive the same errors every time. I have searched the forum and contacted my host but still cannot get it working.

Below is a copy of correspondance with my host (I have tried the last suggestion even though it was for version 6 and I am running version 7) This gave me a merge error even when refreshing the whole site.


Sorry, I'm not sure why Tom provided that misleading reply.

From our knowledgebase entry on Actinic:

To use Actinic Catalog software (a very popular Windows based ecommerce software package) on our Linux Cpanel servers, it needs to be configured thusly.

Network Settings
These can be found at the following locations:
Actinic V3: View->Preferences->Network
Actinic V4+: Advanced->Network Settings

The details you will need to enter are:

CGI Script ID Number: 1
Extension: .pl
Mail [SMTP] Server: localhost
CGI-Bin: http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/]http...e.com/cgi-bin/ (replacing example.com with your domain name)
CodeBase: /public_html/
Path from CGI-BIN to Catalog Directory: ../acatalog
Path to the Perl Script: /usr/bin/perl
FTP Server Host: ftp.example.com (replacing example.com with your domain name)
FTP username: (your control panel username)
FTP password: (your control panel password)
Path to CGI-Bin: /public_html/cgi-bin/


Emails from the catalog software
Due to the fact Actinic tries to connect directly to port 25 to send outbound email via SMTP (which is restricted for anti-spam reasons), you need to make the following modifications as created by Norman Rouxel (therefore, we can not take any responsibility for these instructions) - this information can also be found on the Actinic website at http://www.actinic.co.uk/hosting/doc...eadoofsmtp.txt

Sending e-mail via sendmail (or whatever the host supports) instead of SMTP (should also work with V5)

This needs a host with Perl that supports the Mail::Mailer module (Easy Internet Solutions does).

Patching instructions for Actinic.pm (back it up first - use a text editor - not a word processor):-

Look about 25 lines down from the top. You should see a line
use strict;
ADD the following line immediately after this
use Mail::Mailer;
Search for the line (there is only one instance)
sub SendRichMail

If using V6 - DELETE the above line and everything following it down to the line above the following fragment
######################################
#
# GetScriptUrl - retrieve an url to the specified script

If using V5 - DELETE the above line and everything following it down to the line above the following fragment
######################################
#
# GetCookie - retrieve the actinic cookie


REPLACE the stuff you just deleted with the following new routine:-


sub SendRichMail {
#? ACTINIC::ASSERT($#_ >= 4, "Invalid argument count in SendRichMail ($#_)", __LINE__, __FILE__);
#
# !!!!!! This is a function commonly used by many utilities. Any changes to its interface will
# !!!!!! need to be verified with the various utility scripts.
#
if ($#_ < 4) {
return($::FAILURE, GetPhrase(-1, 12, 'Actinic::SendRichMail'), 0, 0);
}
my ($sSmtpServer, $sEmailAddress, $sLocalError, $sSubjectText, $sMessageText, $sMessageHTML, $sBoundary, $sReturnAddress);
($sSmtpServer, $sEmailAddress, $sSubjectText, $sMessageText, $sMessageHTML, $sReturnAddress) = @_;
#
# Check message content for bare LFs and repair if there are some
#
$sMessageText =~ s/\r\n/\n/g; # CRLF -> LF
$sMessageText =~ s/\r/\n/g; # remaining CR -> LF
$sMessageText =~ s/\n/\r\n/g; # all LF -> CRLF
# and check the HTML content as well
$sMessageHTML =~ s/\r\n/\n/g; # CRLF -> LF
$sMessageHTML =~ s/\r/\n/g; # remaining CR -> LF
$sMessageHTML =~ s/\n/\r\n/g; # all LF -> CRLF
#
# Check the return address
#
if (!$sReturnAddress) # if no return address defined
{
$sReturnAddress = $sEmailAddress; # use the destination email address
}
# use systems sendmail program
my $mailer = Mail::Mailer->new();
$mailer->open({ From => $sReturnAddress,
To => $sEmailAddress,
Subject => $sSubjectText,
})
or die "Can't open: $!\n";

print $mailer $sMessageText;
$mailer->close();
return($::SUCCESS, '', 0, 0);
}

Save and do a site update and that's that.

Bugs / Quirks

Some users have reported that the e-mail is sent on one long line. If this happens open the (patched)Actinic.pm and look for the line

$sMessageText =~ s/\n/\r\n/g; # all LF -> CRLF

and comment it out by adding "#" at the beginning. I.e.

# $sMessageText =~ s/\n/\r\n/g; # all LF -> CRLF

Save and see if that fixes it.

Remember that if you update Actinic the updater will overwrite patched scripts with new version and you'll have to redo the patch.


James Paterson


Posted On: 21 Nov 2006 12:32 AM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi

How and where can I change this?

Thanks
James


Tom I.


Posted On: 20 Nov 2006 07:16 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James,

Are you running any firewall or antivirus software such as Norton, Mcafee, etc. that might include email filtering capabilities? If so, they could be intercepting outgoing mail connections to the SMTP server.

Can you please temporarily change your SMTP port from 25 to 26, and see if that helps at all? If you have software intercepting SMTP connections, then that may 'fool' it as 26 isn't the standard SMTP port.

If that works, then you know you need to try to configure something on your machine to let your connection through.

Please let us know how you get on.


James Paterson


Posted On: 20 Nov 2006 06:19 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi

Set up as said

SMTP Server - mail.vintageamethyst.co.uk

Username - alison@vintageamethyst.co.uk
Password - xxxxxxxxxxx

And recieved the same results-

Actinic Mail Test completed successfully
server: passed
connection: failed
sockets: passed
communications: failed
authorisation: failed
message: Connection refused

Online if you use the contact us form I recieve this error-

Unable to connect to the mail socket (Connection refused)


Thanks Again
James








Frank R.


Posted On: 19 Nov 2006 10:24 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Both your incoming (POP)and outgoing (SMTP) servers should be mail.vintageamethyst.co.uk
User name is usually your full email address and the password is the password you have set up for that email ID



James Paterson


Posted On: 19 Nov 2006 10:02 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi

I can't seem to get actinic version 7 to send e-mails when an order is placed
When running a test I recieve errors

In e-mail settings I can edit

SMTP Server

I can select to use a username and password and can enter a username and password.

I have tried entering in SMTP server with username and password unchecked-

mail.vintageamethyst.co.uk - with this I receive this error

Actinic Mail Test completed successfully
server: passed
connection: failed
sockets: passed
communications: failed
authorisation: failed
message: Connection refused

localhost (a suggestion from the actinic forum) - with this I receive this error

Actinic Mail Test completed successfully
server: passed
connection: failed
sockets: passed
communications: failed
authorisation: failed
message: Connection refused

smtp.vintageamethyst.co.uk - with this I receive this error

The Network Test was unable to verify that the mail (SMTP) server you specified is valid (the name lookup failed). The mail server name may be correct. If it is (and your email address is correct), you will receive an email soon after this test has completed. This error can occur if the mail server you specified is incorrect, or if your PC network is not properly configured (for more information, see "DNS" in Windows help). If this problem is due to improper network configuration, you may not be able to place orders from this computer using the built in Actinic encryption method for credit card details.

With the username and password checked (alison@vintageamethyst.co.uk) I receive the same errors

Any help would be great
James

[petekd]

Hi i had the same problem. Its to do with host server wont work with SMTP authentication. I tried everything possible for days. In the end i changed hosting companies to webfusion. From that moment it worked perfect. If you go with them you will nedd to use the localhost option with no username and password.

Best of luck

Pete

[jont]

(I have tried the last suggestion even though it was for version 6 and I am running version 7) This gave me a merge error even when refreshing the whole site.

The email and the merge request are probably not related - merge request failure can occur if the server times-out (slow connection, heavy server traffic etc) and I get this on a ad-hoc basis with no noticeable effect to the server files, the local files or the ability to purchase and retrieve orders - often hitting upload again results in a merged file.

Over the years I have learnt to simply ignore this error. I would re-instate the last suggestion to get the emails working and see if the merge request still happens - even if it does I personally would not be alarmed.