Configuring Your System to Send SMTP Email Messages

Before you can send email from within a Web application, you need to ensure that the server hosting the application can send email. The problem is that some of you are using IIS locally to develop ASP pages, some are using ColdFusion locally, and some are connecting to remote servers that have either ASP or ColdFusion (or both) on them. Depending on how you are connecting to your server, you need to follow a different set of steps in this task, as outlined in the following list:

• ASP users developing locally with IIS (Windows 2000 or Windows XP) should read the section, "Configuring IIS to Send Email (ASP Users)."

• ASP users developing locally with PWS (Windows 98), unfortunately, are out of luck. PWS (Personal Web Server) does not support SMTP mail. You can (and should) still work through this chapter, but you won't be able to actually send messages. However, if at some later point you can upload to a properly configured IIS server, then the pages will work as intended.

• ColdFusion users developing locally should skip ahead to the section, "Configuring ColdFusion to Send Email."

• ASP or ColdFusion users developing on remote servers (using a mapped network drive or FTP) need to verify with their server administrator that the server is SMTP email-enabled, and likewise verify that their folder on that server has permission to send SMTP email messages. Once verified, skip ahead to the section, "Writing the Code to Send a Message."