If you are using FormMail in a web form, you might wonder how to redirect the visitor to a custom page after the form is submitted.

The simplest solution is to include the following field in your web form’s code:

<input type=hidden name=”redirect” value=”http://example.org/go-to-page.html”>

If you receive the following error in your Outlook application:

this means that your application fails to connect to the SMTP server you have set for your e-mail account.
Most commonly such issues occur when the port for your SMTP connection is filtered by a local firewall application or by your Internet service provider.

Therefore, you can try changing the port you use to connect to the SMTP server from 25 to 2525. If this doesn’t help, you can try disabling or re-configuring your firewall and anti-virus applications you have installed on your computer.

If none of the above works and you continue to receive this error, you should contact your Internet service provider. They should be able to provide you with more detailed information on whether they are filtering any ports used for SMTP connections.

Google’s GMail offers a free SMTP server which can be used by anyone who has a GMail account.

If you don’t have a GMail account, you can create one at the GMail account creation page.

Then all you need to do is configure your mail client to use GMail for outgoing mail server. The details you should use are:

Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: smtp.gmail.com
Use Authentication: Yes
Use Secure Connection: Yes (this can be TLS or SSL depending on your mail client)
Username: your GMail account
Password: your GMail password
Port: 465 or 587

The standard port used for SMTP connection is 25. Most often the reason for refused SMTP connection is that your Internet service provider blocks this port. That’s why we recommend using the alternative port 2525 for your email SMTP connection.

For more information on how to check whether your ISP is blocking port 25, you can refer to this article.

Information on how to change the SMTP port for the most popular mail clients can be found in our Email tutorial.

The standard port used for SMTP connections is 25. One of the most common reasons for not being able to send messages is that your Internet service provider blocks this port. This is why using an alternative SMTP port is highly recommended.

Here’s how to, depending on your OS, check whether your ISP blocks port 25:

• Check port 25 in Windows

Click on the Start menu button, usually located at the lower left corner of the screen. There is a tab called “Run”. Click it and a new window will pop up. In the text field of this window you need to type cmd and then press the “Enter” key. Another window will open. It is the so called “MS-DOS prompt” or “command prompt”. Just type the following command in the command prompt window and press “Enter”:

telnet my-domain-name.com 25

• Check port 25 in Mac OS

Each Mac OS is delivered with a preinstalled terminal emulator. The terminal is a tool which allows you to execute commands from the command line. Usually, the terminal is located under your Mac HD -> “Applications” directory -> Utilities sub-directory. When the window opens, you will see a command line with a flashing cursor on it so you can start typing right away. Just type the following command and press “Enter”:

telnet my-domain-name.com 25

• Check port 25 in Linux

Open your favorite terminal emulator and execute the following command in order to check the connection on port 25 to your website:

telnet my-domain-name.com 25

Results from the 25 port check
If the test is successful, you should receive a message similar to this one:

220-serv01.siteground173.com ESMTP Exim 4.63 #1 Wed, 18 Apr 2008 07:17:30 -0500
220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited,
220 and/or bulk e-mail.
If you get a message saying that the connection is refused we recommend that you use the alternative port for your SMTP connection.

What is the alternative SMTP port and how to configure an email client to use it?

The reason why most ISPs block the default SMTP port 25 is because it is used for sending unsolicited emails.

Fortunately, web hosting providers such as SiteGround offer an alternative SMTP port for the convenience of their customers.

The alternative SMTP port all SiteGround customers can use is 2525.

Information on how to change the SMTP port for the most popular mail clients can be found in our Email tutorial.

If you wish to be able to use an alternative SMTP port, as well as have unlimited mail accounts and stable mail service, you may sign up for an account at SiteGround. Our servers are using state of the art spam protection system with custom ACL filters which will ensure you will avoid the spam and at the same time never miss your important emails.

This Site is upgrading all of its servers from a standard Apache installation to a chrooted Apache installation. This allows much better performance and tightened security.

This transition requires migration from the standard sendmail to mini_sendmail which is better compliant with the new Apache configuration. The new mini_sendmail is very fast and perfectly optmized for the average user. It is compatible with the standard sendmail and can be invoked the same way.

However, it has strict requirements for the email fields. A common problem is to reject mails when the ‘to’ and ‘from’ fields contain anything different than emails. For example: ‘My test’ <test@test.com>. Instead the ‘to’ field should contain only ‘test@test.com’.

This is a known issue in Oscommerce and CreLoaded for example. The code which causes the problem is in the file includes/classes/email.php. There in the function ‘send’ find the following code:

$to = (($to_name != ”) ? ‘”‘ . $to_name . ‘” <’ . $to_addr . ‘>’ : $to_addr);

You have to substitute it with:

$to = ($to_addr);

Please make sure that your applications’ code is complying with the above requirement in order to use mini_sendmail.

In order to be able to send emails from your BlackBerry, please always use the SMTP server of your ISP or mobile service provider instead of our SMTP server.

This way you should be able to send emails from your BlackBerry without any problems.

More information about our mail services and how to use them is available in our email tutorial.

You might not be able to send mails with attachments because of:
A local antivirus / security application running on your local computer. It might detect that the attachment is either not permitted or is infected by a virus. In this case try disabling your application and resending the attachment;
The file extension is found in the forbidden extensions list on the server. An example of this is the .eml extension; In this case try sending your attachment in a different format.

The most common reason for this error is network or local connectivity issue. If you receive it you can try the following:
Disable your local firewall while troubleshooting it;
Disable your local antivirus software while troubleshooting it;
Contact your local Internet service provider for additional assistance;
Check your mail account settings are set according to our tutorial.