How to send email

[Leeroy331]

Hi guys, so I have created 2 website now for University, the first one was a computer hardware website and was for a made up company, with that one I passed with highest marks, although I did lose a few marks for things like when clicking the send button on a contact form getting it to actually send an email. Now I am almost finished my 2nd website and this one is for my wife's children's nursery and they want to actually use it once it is done. So anyway I am about 90 percent finished but, I can not for the life of me work out how to get it to send an email. At the moment the website is on a pen drive and using XAMPP and PHPMyadmin, so the pendrive is acting as the local host. Can someone please explain in simple terms what I need to do to get this to send an email to a chosen email address for me, if that is possible.

Another small problem I have (not certain what is causing this one)... I have a page on my website that has prices of nursery fees, now I am trying to put value in such as £150 etc etc, but the problem I am having is, anything I try to use a £ sign with, it is showing like this... A£150. Does anyone have any ideas please for these 2 small problems, thanks alot.

Lee

[osgood_ · Accepted solution]

Use £ for your £ sign:

£150.00

As for your email, that can only be sent for a remote server. You upload your website to a remote server. You need a form processing script to get the information from the form after the send button has been clicked, which then distributes the information to an email address.

Try youtube - 'php contact form'

[Leeroy331]

Thanks alot osgood that worked for the £ . For the sending on the email, I currently have Xampp on a pendrive and it comes with Mercury which looks like some mail thing but I have tried to get it working through that without luck. I am thinking that there has to be a way for it to send an email using xmapp on a local server but I can't work it out. I have tried youtube video tutorials many time over the last few days but I can't get any of them to work, it is driving me mad.

[Nancy OShea]

Ultimately, you must use a form-to-email processing script in the server-side programming language supported by your web hosting plan (PHP, Perl, ASP.NET, etc...). 

Some hosts provide basic scripts you can use on their servers, others do not.  Either way, you need real web hosting to send mail and a script to process the form data.  It goes without saying, your form scripts need to be secure and resist spam. 

Nancy

[Leeroy331]

So I can't get it to actually send an email until they put the website live with a actual host then?

[Nancy OShea]

So I can't get it to actually send an email until they put the website live with a actual host then?

That's right.

I have my own hosting so I can test scripts on an actual server before I take the site live.   If you're serious about web development, get some web hosting of your own.

Nancy

[Leeroy331]

Ok that makes more sense to me now, thanks alot mate. It will be getting hosting soon once I have finished the website, now that I know the contact form can't work until then it makes much more sense to me.

Thanks Alot.

[Leeroy331]

Hi guys,

So I have been thinking about what Nancy said on the last post about getting some web hosting on my own if I am serious and it has had me seriously considering it. Sorry to ask a really silly question but, I take it I need to get a server for my home, is there any specific servers or other bits that I need?

I do have a very powerful home computer (5960x CPU, 32gb ddr4), but it has a dynamic IP address, and I know hosting from this computer wouldn't be an option. Also with my home internet being dynamic, would that affect having a server?

Thanks guys for all the help, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since the other day.

[Nancy OShea]

1)  You will need to purchase a domain name for your site.  Eg.  YourName.com.  You can do this separately through a domain name registrar like Network Solutions or through a commercial web hosting provider.  Domain names must be renewed annually.

2)  Buy a commercial shared hosting plan for a few dollars per month.  The hosting provider will manage the server and security for you at their data center.  There's no expensive equipment / software to buy & maintain.  In other words, leave web hosting to the professionals.  Don't attempt to do this yourself.

The Best Web Hosting Services of 2017 | PCMag.com

I have used and can recommend the following web hosting providers -- in NO particular order:

Hostgator

Hostmonster

InMotion

LunarPages

Dreamhost

Bluehost

...

Once your hosting plan is set-up, they will email you the FTP log-in credentials to your server.  You need to enter that information into Dreamweaver so you can upload files to your publicly accessible web space.

Nancy

[RR456]

I've used Nancy's hosting listings when I needed to roll-out sites; and, as always her resources are very valuable for us beginners.

Upon analyzing hosting providers from her list, I concluded InMotion Web Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Reseller Hosting | InMotion Hosting was worth a shot.  Not providing any paid endorsement, etc.; just was in the same situation you find yourself in.

We boosted-up the arrangement with InMotion to a Dedicated Server, RAID-1 SSD so it ain't cheap; but, as they say, we can run a small country off that thing.  Been using that setup for over a year.  Speed is tremendous, only been down twice for not more than total of an hour and that was due to a reboot on an upgrade not firing.  Great tech support.  Server sits in LA USA on the Los Angeles Internet Exchange Point (IXP) so blazing fast. Got no complaints with these folks and I knew nothing about hosting, just knew I had to get my sites up and running.

Hope that info helps.  Good luck.

[Nancy OShea]

Dedicated hosting is probably overkill for most people starting out.  But the advantages are many as is the price.

A basic shared hosting or VPS package is probably all most people need.