php mail function sendmail

Yesterday I needed to send an email from a php page to an email address, sounded simple enough but when I tried it it did not work, so after a bit of searching I found lots of people having the same issues but no simple instructions to get it working.

Here are the simple instructions.

My Setup:
Ubuntu Server default install with lamp.
Exchange server installed on a different server.

The steps taken:
1) Install sendmail
    from the terminal
    sudo apt-get install sendmail

2) Edit php.ini
    from the terminal
    sudo vim /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
    approx line 1059 change
    ;sendmail_path =
    to
    sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
    write changes and exit

3) restart apache2
    from the terminal
    sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

4) edit hosts file
    from the terminal
    sudo vim /etc/hosts
    near the top add
    127.0.0.1 hostname.local hostname
    where hostname = your hostname

5) Create your php test page
     from termianl
     sudo vim /var/www/mail.php
     add code
<?php mail("to@example.com", "subject_line", "message_body",null, "-f"."from@example.com" ); ?>
Write changes and exit

6) From a machine with a web browser access the mail.php.

ALL DONE



   

Playing Diablo 2 on Windows 7

Just a quick one today.

Tried playing an old favorite Diablo 2 on Windows 7 today and found it has issues, mainly screwing up the colours on the game.

The fix is simple, all it involves is making sure explorer is stopped while the game is being played.

1) Create a batch file in the diablo 2 folder
2) Edit the batch file to match the following:
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
game.exe
explorer.exe
3) Save and exit.
4) Change any shortcuts to point to this file instead of game.exe

Enjoy the classic game.

VB6 Authenticate user against AD

Now I know VB6 is old, but it still works and is easy to quickly write an app, well I thought so until this morning when I needed a simple app that can verify a username and password on my domain. In PHP it is a simple ldap query and the user is verified, trying the same thing in VB6, no chance, it works fine if you are logged on to a domain machine, or there is a way if you are logged on locally to a domain machine, but if your machine is not part of the domain it is a pain in the rear.

After trying for an hour, reading many pages on the web, I finally gave up and went to do something simple (clear the filter in a projector.) Then an idea hit me which works and is very simple.

It goes as follows:
1) find the address of any share on the domain which all users have read access to.
2) In VB6 map the share using supplied credentials.
3) If successful, Congrats the user is verified! unmap the share.
4) If not successful deal with the error.

Finished.

Code as follows:

Dim objnetwork As Object
Set objnetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
On Error Resume Next
objnetwork.MapNetworkDrive "H:", "\\server\share", "false", username.text, password.text
objnetwork.RemoveNetworkDrive "H:"
If Err <> 0 Then
msgbox = "Invalid Username or Password"
Else
'code here for successful logon
End If


End of Code

That is it, no extra declarations no modules, no ldap naming convention, just simple code easy to use with 2 text boxes and a command button.