Step (1):
Download SMTPServ.EXE (140 KB) for free
Step (2):
Once downloaded, double
click SMTPServ.EXE. It is a self-extracting WinZip file. Unzip this file
to the directory of your liking. Double Click the newly unzipped file
(SMTP.EXE). You should see a dialog box similar to the one given below:
This indicates SMTP.Server has been successfully registered
in the system Registry.
If you do not see this dialog box, please report the bug. (Remember that the application has not been tested on Win95/NT)
Step (3):
Now you are all set to use it in your Visual C++ applications (as CreateDispatch(“SMTP.Server”)), ASP/Excel/VB applications (as Server.CreateObject(“SMTP.Server”)) .
Please go through the example code, and the methods/properties supported by SMTP.Server.
Type: String
Default Value: “guest”
Description:
Although the SMTP.Server does not require any user authentication, but this parameter is given just for the heck of it !. Its up to the user how he/she uses it. The only time when SMTP.Server uses this parameter is when it makes log entries. The LoginName will be written in the log entries so that you may identify the user whose mail was sent through the SMTP.Server. This may be a good tool for billing purposes.
In a perfect world the LoginName may be derived from MailFrom parameter. (normally MailFrom = LoginName@some.server.com, but there may be aliases and other mumbo jumbo that renders this technique, of determining the user, useless.)
Type: String
Default Value: “guest”
Description:
SMTP.Server does not use this entry at all. This entry has been put there for save keeping the password. Its up to you to decide how you use it.
Unlike LoginName the Password is not entered in the LogFile. Why I put the Password at all ?, is a mystery even to me. Its just that, Login & Password are like twins, so when I put the Login there (and for good reasons too, see the LoginName description), I automatically made an entry for Password.
Type: String
Default Value: null
Description:
This property holds the
destination email address. Only ONE destination address should be given here. If
you want the email to be sent to multiple destinations, then use the CcTo
property to specify other email addresses. You MUST set this property to a valid
address before calling SendMail( ) method.
Type: String
Default Value: null
Description:
This property should be
set with the sender’s address. If
the sender’s address is not given SMTP.Server checks the ReplyTo property. If ReplyTo
property contains an email address, it will be used as the sender address. In
case neither MailFrom nor ReplyTo is set, the system returns with an error
“Invalid Sender address”.
Type: String
Default Value: “kashif.SMTP.Server”
Description:
This property should be set to the IP address of the machine that runs SMTP.Server component. If you do not set this property it defaults to “Kashif.SMTP.Server”.
Type: integer
Default Value: 25
Description:
The default SMTP
listening port is 25. You should not change this unless you have good reasons to
do so.
Type: integer
Default Value: 1
Description:
This is a read-only property. You cannot set its value. You can only retrieve it value.
Type: String
Default Value: “mail.nexlinx.net.pk”
Description:
SMTP.Server does not
deliver the email directly to the destination address specified in MailTo, and
CcTo properties. It passes on the email message to another server which in turn
will send the message to the destination(s) on SMTP.Server’s behalf. It is
similar to how other Email clients (like Eudora, Exchange etc.) handle email
delivery. You should specify the Mail server’s IP address through the SMTPServer
Property. The server address could
either be descriptive like “mail.nexlinx.net.pk” (my ISP’s mail server address)
or an actual IP address like “202.59.64.7”. If you do not set this property it
defaults to “mail.nexlinx.net.pk”. I strongly recommend that you set this
property to your own ISP/company’s mail server, since “mail.nexlinx.net.pk”
probably has a policy to reject requests originating from domains other than
“*.nexlinx.net.pk”
Type: boolean
Default Value: 0 (FALSE) i.e. logs will not be maintained.
Description:
This property indicates to the SMTP.Server whether it should keep a log of all the Send Mail requests or not. If this parameter is set then the server will log complete communication to and from the destination SMTPServer (as mentioned in the parameter SMTPServer). You may use the log for billing purposes, to stop hacking, to debug the program etc. How you use it and why you need it, is completely up to you.
See Also: LogFile
Type: String
Default Value: “C:\SMTPLog.txt”.
Description:
When you set the EnableLog parameter to true. SMTP.Server attempts to open the file as determined by the “LogFile” parameter. Incase the file already exists, the server will start appending the log entries to it. If the file does not exist, the server will create a new file. Remember that the server only creates new file and not the directories. So if you have set LogFile to “C:\logs\Smtp.txt” then make sure that the directory “c:\logs\” exists. If it does not exist then the server will discard the entry and will start appending in the default “C:\SMTPLog.txt” file. In case the file name is invalid, or the server could not create a file it will start making log entries to the default file “C:\SMTPLog.txt”.
You may enable logging and have a look at the generated LogFile, to see the syntax, and the level of information that the file maintains. You may use customized parsing scripts/programs that would parse the LogFile and implement your billing system, or to prevent Spam, malicious emails etc. However to make this meaningful, you should first set the LoginName parameter before Calling the SendMail() method. see Example.asp for details:
An excerpt from the Log File is given below:
BEGIN
<Kashif>
Message intended
for 4 addresses
HIM: 220
mail.nexlinx.net.pk ESMTP Nexlinx Sendmail 8.9.3/8.9.3; Thu, 31 May 2001
14:09:01 +0500
ME: HELO
kashif.SMTP.Server
HIM:250
mail.nexlinx.net.pk Hello [202.59.64.117], pleased to meet you
ME: MAIL FROM:
<kashifmanzoor@giki.edu.pk>
HIM:250
<kashifmanzoor@giki.edu.pk>... Sender ok
ME: RCPT TO:
<kashifmanzoor@hotmail.com>
HIM:250
<kashifmanzoor@hotmail.com>... Recipient ok
ME: RCPT TO:
<kashifmanzoor@yahoo.com>
HIM:250
<kashifmanzoor@yahoo.com>... Recipient ok
ME: RCPT TO:
<00030022@lums.edu.pk>
HIM:250
<00030022@lums.edu.pk>... Recipient ok
ME: RCPT TO:
<naveedarshad@yahoo.com>
HIM:250
<naveedarshad@yahoo.com>... Recipient ok
ME: DATA
HIM:354 Enter
mail, end with "." on a line by itself
ME:
Subject: This email comes to your
courtesy of SMTP.Server
Reply-To: kashifmanzoor@giki.edu.pk
<55 bytes of message sent to the
server>
.
HIM:250 OAA04529
Message accepted for delivery
Message
Successfully delivered
======== END
========
There you have it !. Use this log file as you please. The message sent by SMTP.Server start with the ME tag, and the messages that are received by SMTP.Server start with the HIM tag. Every new log entry starts with a BEGIN tag and ends with END tag; however if an error occurs while sending the mail, the END tag will not be present. So a missing END tag should indicate an error. To get the details of the error simply see the corresponding HIM: line
Type: String
Default Value: null
Description:
This property should be
set with the address at which you want the receiver to reply. If ReplyTo is not
set, SMTP.Server automatically treats the address in MailFrom property as
ReplyTo. This property is useful when the MailFrom address is different than
ReplyTo; in case they are both the same you may safely ignore ReplyTo.
Type: integer
Default Value: 180 seconds (3 minutes)
Description:
This value specifies (in
seconds) how long should the SMTP.Server take for a single email message. The
timer starts when you call SendMail()
method. If the SendMail() method does not return (with or without an error) with
in TimeOut seconds, SMTP.Server will forcibly abort the mail message. This
safeguards your container applications from blocking after a call to SendMail().
Type: String
Default Value: “(no subject)”
Description:
This property holds the message subject. You can either set the mail subject through this property or during the call to SendMail() as an input parameter. (see SendMail() method description)
Type: String
Default Value: null
Description:
This property holds the actual message. You can either set the message through this property or during the call to SendMail() as an input parameter. (see SendMail() method description)
Type: String
Default Value: null
Description:
In case you email is
destined to multiple addresses, you can specify them through this property. To
enter multiple addresses, separate them with a “,” (comma) e.g. “abcd@efg.com,
hij@klm.com, mno@pqr.com”
note that the every address except the last ends with a comma. SMTP.Server ignores any invalid addresses, and does not indicate any error. An invalid address could either be an address without an “@” in it, or an address not separated by “,”. SMTP.Server, however does remove any leading/trailing spaces from the addresses.
Type: boolean
Default Value: 0 (FALSE) (i.e. output from SendMail() will not be compatible with the WML)
Description:
When you call SendMail()
method it returns a string that indicates the success or failure of the
operation. This string may be used verbatim by your program to report the
outcome of send mail process. However if you are embedding SMTP.Server for
sending email through a WAP (wireless Application Protocol) device (e.g. your
mobile phones, Handheld PCs etc.) then you MUST set this parameter to “1”. The
reason is, that the return message may contain illegal characters like angled
brackets “<” or “>”. Although
an HTML page may overlook these, but a WML browser gets confused and tries to
interpret it as a start/end of a WML tag, hence generating a serious “page
cannot be displayed” error.
Setting this property to
“1”, will ensure that the return message from SendMail() method is compatible
with WML code (i.e. all the ambiguities are removed from the return string ),
and you may output the SendMail() return string directly to a WAP device. See Example WML
Code.
SMTP.Server supports only one method (life doesn’t get any easier than this !). The parameters are pretty self explanatory.
The method takes in the following parameters:
strCc : A string that holds the comma separated
destination email addresses (See CcTo
property)
strSubject: A string that holds the Subject of the email message (See Subject property).
strMessage: A string that holds the actual message to be sent through Email (See Message property).
strAttachFile: At the moment SMTP.Server does not allow attachments to your messages. In the future versions I will implement this feature, at which time this parameter will take in the Attached file name. As of now, you may set it to an empty string or to any other value for that matter – SMTP.Server simply ignores it.
You can either pass on the Cc/Subject/Message information directly through the SendMail() method call, OR you can set these individually by accessing the properties directly. If you set these properties individually then make sure you call SendMail( ) method with empty strings as parameters. This is because the Subject/Cc/Message values passed directly as parameter to SendMail() call take precedence over any previously set values of Subject, CcTo, Message properties. (See Example ASP Code)
Return Value:
The function return a string that explains the
outcome of the SendMail(). If the message is delivered successfully the return
string will contain “Message Successfully delivered”; else it will contain a
description of any error that might have occurred.
Exmaple.asp (native ASP code)
Example.wml
(ASP code that incorporates WML)
ServerTest.xls (file contains Macros, you must Enable
them while running it)
I searched for an SMTP ActiveX component and found the link to your site. I have downloaded the component, and am using it in my ASP code. The component works fine, and specially the log file it produces is very informative. I have parsed the log file for my purpose. Well done, and thankyou for your help. bye, Mario (Brazil)
Send
Bugs/feedback/criticism to: kashifmanzoor@hotmail.com
