setting up PHP mail function

[RedScourge]

ok, ive been told on several sites that setting up the php mail function is as east as providing an email account and a smtp.****.*** address for it in the php.ini file, but my email account is just a regular email account from my ISP, one that i have a password to access, since i am hosting my apache 1.3.x + php 4.3.9 + mysql server on a standard dsl connection that uses DHCP (meaning i reconfigure my IP and stuff every time my computer goes down, which is rare). this works for me since i aleady pay for the dsl connection, and this site experiences very little traffic.

my question regarding the php mail function configuration is this - do i need to run either 1) my own local smtp service somehow 2) get a program that acts like linux's sendmail or whatever, or 3) be able to twiddle with some settings to allow me to use my smtp server with a password on it somehow.

would be very grateful if someone could answer this

[jordonbedwell]

It is that easy, as long as your smtp doesnt require authentication then your pretty much set changing localhost to smtp.yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com! You could also save your self sometime and install a free smtp server on your computer, you would have to do some work with the smtp server to protect from trogans using it as a gateway for their stupidity but yeah it is pretty much easy!

MercurySMTP Server is FREE -> ftp://ftp.usm.maine.edu/pegasus/mercury32/m32-332.exe