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Asked: 2026-05-15T12:24:47+00:00

I’ve got a PHP app with an invitation system where users can invite other

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I’ve got a PHP app with an invitation system where users can invite other users to try the service. Internally we use google apps for our domain to send/receive emails (mydomain.com).

1) My question is, can I send emails from my server with the from address being invite@mydomain.com? I am worried about the emails being blocked/ignored by the destination server. I am aware that it is possible to send the emails by configuring my php installation to use google smtp server, but there is a limit of 500 emails a day, which is not very scalable.

I don’t really know that much about sending emails and why/how they are blocked/considered spam. I’d appreciate any good advice/tips you can give me.

2) What is a good way to test to see if the email portion of my app is working without installing it on my live server. Can I just setup an smtp server on my desktop and send mails this way? Can you recommend any other good ideas for testing. I’ll basically be sending just a few emails to my personal webmail accounts to make sure that everything works.

Thanks,
Bill

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    1) My question is, can I send emails
    from my server with the from address
    being invite@mydomain.com? I am
    worried about the emails being
    blocked/ignored by the destination
    server. I am aware that it is possible
    to send the emails by configuring my
    php installation to use google smtp
    server, but there is a limit of 500
    emails a day, which is not very
    scalable.

    I don’t really know that much about
    sending emails and why/how they are
    blocked/considered spam. I’d
    appreciate any good advice/tips you
    can give me.

    There is a way track if mail has been bounced (there are more than 10 possible bounce reasons!). You can set the return-path header in your outgoing emails. Best practice is to specify a different mail address in the return-path. When e-mails are getting bounced for whatever reason, a notification will be sent to this address. Additionally you can have for example a (PHP) cron job that connects using IMAP to the bounced email account and do something with the bounced e-mails. This is a pretty reliable way to track the status of your sent emails.

    Additionally, in order to minimize the chance your e-mail will get blacklisted you could think about signing your e-mails using a certificate (you can get one for free for personal usage. A commercial one may cost you around 25 dollars a year)

    2) What is a good way to test to see
    if the email portion of my app is
    working without installing it on my
    live server. Can I just setup an smtp
    server on my desktop and send mails
    this way? Can you recommend any other
    good ideas for testing. I’ll basically
    be sending just a few emails to my
    personal webmail accounts to make sure
    that everything works.

    You can actually send a test email from everywhere as long as the outgoing SMTP port (25) is not blocked. If you have an own smtp server with username/passwd authentication enabled, you will be able to send e-mails from everywhere using the these credentials/settings. In all other cases, you will have to use the smtp of your internet provider to send emails.

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