dbarak Posted February 22, 2005 Posted February 22, 2005 Hello, I'm currently redesigning our company's website, and I'd like to move it from our current, poorly-run hosting company to one that's well-run and responsive (yours seems to fit the bill so far). I have a couple of questions though... 1. Is it possible to temporarily host a site without an associated domain name? I'd like to fully develop our website on a new server, and once it's ready to go live, point the domain to the new server. 2. I've been testing a PHP script on our current server, one that allows a visitor (Joe Schmoe) to recommend a page to a co-worker (Sally Smith), etc. The script allows for the SMTP email to show the visitor's email address as the email's sender (the email, although sent to Sally Smith from the server, shows Joe Schmoe as the sender). However, our current hosting provider, in order to prevent spam, automatically switches the listed sender's email address to a default address in our domain. We're not interested in spamming people, so is it possible for our SMTP email to show Joe Schmoe as the sender of the email to Sally Smith? (Please pardon my over-clarification of the matter, but I've found that support people with other hosting companies I've contacted have a hard time grasping the concept. It seems as though you all have a clue. ) Thanks! Dave Barak dbarak@metricsystems.com Quote
TCH-Don Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 welcome to the forum Dave When you sign up you will receive a welcome e-mail that includes temp address in the form of http://ip/~username so you can upload via an Ip address and user name and view your site first with the temp address. With php the temp address will not work with absolute php includes like include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/header_html.php"; but will work with include ("header.php"); You have 30 days to try out our services and if you are not happy you can cancel and get your money back. you will find a mixture of very knowledgeable staff and family members here should you need any help. as to the e-mail thing, I have not seen anything like that. My php e-mailers work fine with the address I code into them, I use php mail function. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Welcome t the forum Dave, While what you are proposing in #2 is possible it is can also be open to abuse by someone deciding to send links to a lot of folks that do not want to receive it. If that happens it would be considered spam even if that was not your intention. TCH has a zero tolerence for spam. Quote
dbarak Posted February 23, 2005 Author Posted February 23, 2005 Hi Don and Bruce, Thanks for the super-fast answers! And they're the answers I was looking for, too. I feel the same way about spam, and our only planned use of SMTP mail is for the link referral script. Our opt-in newsletter will be sent using software here in the office, and everything else we've got planned for the website involves email coming in to us, rather than going out. Dave Quote
TCH-Don Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Sounds like you will be using a php form with a drop down recipients list so the recipients address is hidden, right Quote
Paul Heery Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Hi Don and Bruce, Thanks for the super-fast answers! And they're the answers I was looking for, too. I feel the same way about spam, and our only planned use of SMTP mail is for the link referral script. Our opt-in newsletter will be sent using software here in the office, and everything else we've got planned for the website involves email coming in to us, rather than going out. Dave <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Dave, I saw your post and you can absolutely do what you want to do. Most of the CMS setups (Nuke, Post Nuke, etc.) allow this by default. However, I've got a standalone script running as well that performs this function. One thing that you might want to include in your code is to only allow a limited number of referrals to be sent from a given IP address within a defined time period. Quote
dbarak Posted February 23, 2005 Author Posted February 23, 2005 Hi Don and Paul, Actually, the sender's email will come from a text box. In this case, if I see a page I think you might be interested in, I'd put my address in the sender's field, your address in the recipient's field, and fill out whatever other fields are needed. The email you get would have my email address as the return address, as opposed to a default address from our domain. Our concern is that someone may get a referral email, not recognize the sender's address, and then trash it. Paul, good idea on the limit -- I remember seeing some scripts with that feature, and I think I can incorporate those snippets into this. Dave Quote
dbarak Posted February 23, 2005 Author Posted February 23, 2005 Thanks Robert! I have to say that I'm very impressed with the satisfaction of your customers! Most hosting companies I've looked at don't have very many positive comments. Dave , welcome to the Forums, <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Quote
TCH-RobertM Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Dave Thank you, We do are best to make the customers(aka FAMILY) members happy. I am sure you will not be disappointed. Look forward to seeing you onboard. Quote
TCH-Don Posted February 23, 2005 Posted February 23, 2005 Dave this sounds similar to a tell-a-friend script I do not like them because anyone can send a message to someone else through my site. This was fine years ago, but in this day and age of spammers, it is abused. You defiantly need to take precautions, like maybe have the e-mail goto you and then you can forward the e-mail after review. Quote
dbarak Posted February 24, 2005 Author Posted February 24, 2005 (edited) Don, We opened a hosting account today, and I've found that any HTML file with a PHP extension, whether it has PHP code in it or not, will not be served until our domain is pointing to this server. I tried uploading a "test.php" file that had absolutely no PHP code in it, just the usual bare minimum HTML code and the word "test," and it didn't serve -- it just returned a string of error messages. My question now is, if I use a different domain name for testing purposes, can I then switch our final intended domain name in its place when the time comes? welcome to the forum Dave When you sign up you will receive a welcome e-mail that includes temp address in the form of http://ip/~username so you can upload via an Ip address and user name and view your site first with the temp address. With php the temp address will not work with absolute php includes like include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/header_html.php"; but will work with include ("header.php"); You have 30 days to try out our services and if you are not happy you can cancel and get your money back. you will find a mixture of very knowledgeable staff and family members here should you need any help. as to the e-mail thing, I have not seen anything like that. My php e-mailers work fine with the address I code into them, I use php mail function. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Edited February 24, 2005 by dbarak Quote
TCH-Don Posted February 24, 2005 Posted February 24, 2005 Hi Dave, yes you can request a domain name change. But I have used the temp addy with some php in it and it works. let me check on this. Quote
TCH-RobertM Posted February 24, 2005 Posted February 24, 2005 Hello Dbarak, Please PM me and I will see if I can be of assistance Quote
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