PHP mail() timeout

Question

First a few infos:

• Debian Squeeze
• PHP 5.3.3
• PHP with mod_cgi
• I absolutely HAVE to use mail() in this case. For all my other

Answer 1

Do not rely on mail() as it is unreliable and leads to issues just like these. I've used phpMailer for years quite happily.

If you persist on mail() then check your settings in php.ini (explained at http://www.quackit.com/php/tutorial/php_mail_configuration.cfm). Note that usually CLI has a different php.ini than FastCGI.

Some more common problems:

• FastCGI doesn't have permissions to use sendmail

• Memory limit with large attachments