[QUOTE]
inet_aton HOSTNAME

Takes a string giving the name of a host, and translates that to the 4-byte string (structure). Takes arguments of both the 'rtfm.mit.edu' type and '18.181.0.24'. If the host name cannot be resolved, returns undef. For multi-homed hosts (hosts with more than one address), the first address found is returned.
[/QUOTE]This, from ActiveState help files on the 'Socket' library, implies inet_aton does take domain names. But having just tried it, it didn't work. So either the help pages are wrong, or my server isn't set up for DNS, or I've got totally confused about something

Having said that, since gethostbyname() doesn't work on my system anyway, the chances that inet_aton will work are equally limited; Maybe domain names *do* work on a system where gethostbyname() fails? I obviously can't test this, since I've never got it to work....

Nick...

[This message has been edited by Nick Gilbert (edited 06-27-2000).]

Thanks for checking further. This also could be an OS difference where *nix based inet_aton() is different from NT based calls. I also suspect that inet_aton() simply uses gethostbyname() when it's asked to resolve a domain.

Some of the search results talk about problems emerging when the SMTP and the web server share the same machine. Resolving its own hostname seems to be a problem in some instances. I can never replicate the SMTP problems a [very] few NT users have no matter what Perl or NT OS type. Perhaps it is that I always use an external mail server. It would be an interesting experiment for you to find an independent SMTP which allows relay and test with both the original and modified scripts.

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Michael Farris
UBB Administrator and Customer Support

I had the same problem with e-mail on my server (I'm running IIS 4.0 with ActivePerl). No errors with mail delivery were reported by UBB (reported success in fact), but no mail was actually delivered.

I modified the code as per Nick's advice:
$remote_ip = inet_aton($EmailServer);
and subsequently the mail began to be delivered.

I am running the web server and the IIS server on the same machine so perhaps as Michael states this is part of the problem. I wonder also if gethostbyname() has a innate problem with resolving IP numbers. (My SMTP server is an IP number).


[This message has been edited by Spock (edited 01-10-2001).]