UPDATED June 19,2009 – Update posted below.

This tip is for those who have installed WordPress from SimpleScripts via their webhost’s CPanel.

When you install WP with SimpleScripts, they use default information they get from your webhost. This reflects when someone registers on your blog or just leaves a comment. The sending email address looks like this:
[webhost account]@[host address].com. Mine was xxxx@host.hostmonster.com. That looks like crap when you want people to believe that you know what you’re doing on your blog.

I’ve spent some uncountable hours finding solutions to fix this issue. The 2 issues are separate, and the solutions don’t lie in the same location. It’s retarded to say the least.

ISSUE 1: Let’s address the admin email that is sent to new users who register on your blog. I tried to change the necessary code to create what I wanted but it didn’t work. I still don’t know why, but the solution came in the form of a plugin called New User Email Setup. This plugin allows you to customize every aspect of how your emails are sent to new signups as well as the notification you receive as the admin. You can change the email address, the from name, as well as the content of the mails.

ISSUE 2: Comment Notifications…

I’m not sure what version of WP you use, but in 2.7-2.7.1, this fix works great.

Edit this file: /includes/class-phpmailer.php

• Go to line 75 and edit what is inside the quotes.
  It may say something like “localhost” or something.
• On line 88, put your email again inside the empty quotes. This is the reply address you want to use.

That’s all. One plugin and a simple php code edit to make your emails look normal.

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*UPDATE June 19, 2009

I recently found a simple plugin that will do the same thing this post describes. It’s called WP Mail SMTP. It utilizes the SMTP Send Mail function instead of the basic Mail function for PHP. It lets you customize the sending email address, the sending mail name, and gives you a few options for configuring your WP site to use your mail host’s SMTP to send mails. You need to know the details for your mail host, such as Outgoing Mail Server and port, username and password, and whether your server uses authentication.

Again, here’s the link for the plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/

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Tags: Wordpress Tips