Tip: GoDaddy hosting and Fast Secure Contact Form
Tip: GoDaddy hosting and Fast Secure Contact Form
Problem:
You have GoDaddy web hosting and your Fast Secure Contact Form forms do not send any mail.
Solution:
GoDaddy has one of the most restrictive web site form email policies. They do this to help prevent email spam. Many other people have had this problem with web forms and GoDaddy. This problem is happening with many contact form PHP scripts, not just Fast Secure Contact Form.
GoDaddy purposely blocks most web form email. Getting your web form to send email on GoDaddy requires very specific requirements. If you contact GoDaddy support, they will tell you they cannot offer tech support for 3rd party web mail contact forms. GoDaddy has their own web form that you can use, but it is limited to just basic functionality and it also requires special setup.
GoDaddy hosting and Fast Secure Contact Form:
WordPress Version:
Step 1.
You must have a GoDaddy email address on the SAME DOMAIN as your web site that your form is on and the contact form “From Email:” setting must be set to email to it.
If you do not already have this, then create a new email account using the GoDaddy mail control panel.
Step 2.
You have to install a free WordPress plugin called WP MAIL SMTP to make WordPress send email through the GoDaddy SMTP server. This is what is required to use 3rd party web mail forms on GoDaddy servers.
After installing WP MAIL SMTP, you have to configure it. In the WordPress administration console, click “Settings”. Click the “Email” link under “Settings”.
Enter the following WP MAIL SMTP settings:
From Email: registeredname@yourgodaddydomain.com This must be your GoDaddy hosted e-mail account on the SAME DOMAIN as your web site!
From Name: type in either your name or the name of your website, or leave blank for “WordPress”. This will make the From line of the e-mail read as “From Name”
Mailer: Choose “Send all WordPress emails via SMTP”. Do not choose the “…PHP mail() function…” because it will not work.
Return Path: check this setting “Set the return-path to match the From Email”
SMTP Host: relay-hosting.secureserver.net (do not use the SMTP server that GoDaddy provided you during your e-mail account sign-up. For the record, that is smtpout.secureserver.net).
SMTP Port: 25 (default for most SMTP servers).
Encryption: Choose “No encryption”.
Authentication: Choose “No: Do not use SMTP authentication”.
Username: [leave blank]
Password: [leave blank]
Click the Save Changes button.
Type in a valid e-mail address in the To: box under the “Send a Test Email” section.
Click the Send Test button.
Check that email address to see if that worked.
Also be aware that GoDaddy email from web forms can take up to 30 minutes to receive. The average time in my many tests was 1-15 minutes! GoDaddy says their servers only send mail, once every 15 minutes.
Step 3.
Edit your contact form and set these settings:
a. Set the “Custom E-mail From:” setting to the same godaddy email address as in Step 2
This must be your GoDaddy hosted e-mail account on the SAME DOMAIN as your web site! This step is required or GoDaddy will not send any email at all.
b. You must check this setting: “Enable when web host requires “Mail From” strictly tied to domain email account.” This step is required or GoDaddy will not send any email if the form sender uses a web mail address like gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc.
c. Find this setting: “Send E-mail function:”, make sure it is set to “WordPress”. This setting is required, or WP-MAIL-SMTP does not work.
d. Click “Update Options”. Make sure you repeat Step 3 for each form you have. (by default, there are 4 forms).
Test your form now, it should work. But remember: the GoDaddy email from web forms can take up to 30 minutes to receive. The average time in my many tests was 1-15 minutes! GoDaddy says their servers only send mail, once every 15 minutes.
Note: after setting these settings, the email may appear to come FROM your WordPress site instead of the user who submitted the form. But rest assured, when you click “Reply” in your email client, the reply will be addressed to the email address of the form submitter because the email header “Reply-To” is set to their email address. You can blame GoDaddy for this because they are the ones requiring these goofy settings.
PHP Script version:
Step 1.
You must have a GoDaddy email address on the SAME DOMAIN as your web site that your form is on.
If you do not already have this, then create a new email account using the GoDaddy mail control panel.
Step 2.
Edit your contact form and set these settings:
a. Set the “Custom E-mail From:” setting to the same godaddy email address as in Step 2
This must be your GoDaddy hosted e-mail account on the SAME DOMAIN as your web site! This step is required or GoDaddy will not send any email at all.
b. You must check this setting: “Enable when web host requires “Mail From” strictly tied to domain email account.” This step is required or GoDaddy will not send any email if the form sender uses a web mail address like gmail, hotmail, yahoo, etc.
d. Click “Update Options”.
Step 3.
Edit your contact form and set these settings:
Mail With SMTP:
a. Check the box “Enable SMTP for mail sending”
b. Set SMTP Port to 25
c. SMTP Encryption [leave blank]
d. Do not check “Enable when SMTP Authentication is required”
e. Leave SMTP Username and Password blank.
f. Click “Update Options”.
Make sure you repeat Step 2 and Step 3 for each form you have. (by default, there are 4 forms).
Test your form now, it should work. But remember: the GoDaddy email from web forms can take up to 30 minutes to receive. The average time in my many tests was 1-15 minutes! GoDaddy says their servers only send mail, once every 15 minutes.
Note: after setting these settings, the email may appear to come FROM you or your web site instead of the user who submitted the form. But rest assured, when you click “Reply” in your email client, the reply will be addressed to the email address of the form submitter because the email header “Reply-To” is set to their email address. You can blame GoDaddy for this because they are the ones requiring these goofy settings.
Consider HostGator Linux Web Hosting
I use HostGator and do not have these email sending problems. I also do not have to use the WP MAIL SMTP plugin on HostGator. Fast Secure Contact Form works great on my HostGator Linux account.
If you have a web site, you will want it to be fast and reliable. I have researched many web hosting providers to find for you which one is the best. I recommend HostGator Web Hosting. This site and all my other sites are hosted there. Not only are the prices great, they also offer the most features. I have had dedicated servers for many years in the same data center and they were very reliable.
Be sure to select “Linux Web Hosting” when you start your hosting account. If your web site requires any interactive scripts like contact forms, blogs, forums, e-commerce, etc. then I very highly recommend “Linux Web Hosting” rather than “Windows Web Hosting” because I have fewer problems with it.
To start your web hosting account today, click here: HostGator Web Hosting … Mike
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Mike Challis
PO Box 819
Long Beach WA 98631
