[support] Unable to send e-mail. Contact the site administrator if the problem persists

[Tim Johnson]

* Jamie Holly <hovercrafter at earthlink.net> [131215 07:11]:
> 
> What's your email address set in the E-Mail address field on 
> Administration > Configuration > System > Site information?
> 
>  From your log, the problem is obvious. You are attempting to send an 
> email with a return address that doesn't exist. Postfix is set to verify 
> sender, so before it accepts an email, it's going to ask the server 
> handling the return address if that user actually exists. If it doesn't 
> then it's going to send a 550 error. If you have the EMail address in 
> Drupal set to something other than www at tj49.com, then you got a server 
> problem going on, preventing PHP from setting the return address. If 
> you're running in safe_mode, that can be the culprit. If not, then you 
> can try adding this to your settings.php:
> 
> ini('sendmail_path', '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f tim at akwebsoft.com');
  I am currently even happier and even more confused: consider the
  instructions above. Last night, I could have sworn that I did
  indeed put 
  ini('sendmail_path', '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f tim at akwebsoft.com');
  in my settings.php

  but I find today that if I put the ini() function call in
  settings.php, I get a blank screen when I reload the site - no
  content whatsoever, and it doesn't seem to matter at
  what position the ini() call is in settings.php
  ... so the ini() call is removed.

  Additionally
  -----------
  1)further research indicates that the proper settings in php.ini
    should be
    sendmail_path = "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -ftim at tj49.com"
    see http://hostmonsterforums.com/archive/index.php/t-9832.html
	(no space between the -f argument and the email address)

  2)Now I can send email through a non-drupal mail() call

  3)Following the instructions at
    http://hostmonsterforums.com/archive/index.php/t-9832.html
    I called the hostmonster helpdesk and with their guidance, 
	I used cPanel to upgrade to PHP 5.4 (was set to PHP 5.2) and
	elected to generate a php.ini file to which I added
    sendmail_path = "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -ftim at tj49.com"

  It's too early to be entirely certain, but I think I'm moving to a
  fix and I hope what I'm writing here can help others.

  Now, I know that Jamie is as busy as sheep dog helping us noobs,
  but maybe he call tell me why 

  ini('sendmail_path', '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -f tim at akwebsoft.com');
  Or should it be
  ini('sendmail_path', '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i -ftim at akwebsoft.com'); ## ??
  in settings.php would cause the site to choke

  Yet, I note that the same code as the bottom line of index.php
  does not cause the site to choke (load blank content).

  So I still could use some clarification on the proper use of
  ini(), and am doing my own research ..

  Aren't we having fun?
-- 
Tim 
tim at tee jay forty nine dot com or akwebsoft dot com
http://www.akwebsoft.com, http://www.tj49.com