Problem in sending email (From Email address)

Question

Hi,
I am sending the information I collected from my 'Contact Us' page to my email which is supported by google apps.

When I receive the email from the website I want to see the email id of the sender in FROM which was entered in txtEmail.Text.


 m.From = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(txtEmail.Text, txtName.Text);


But this is not happening. When I receive the email in From, I am getting "[email protected]". 
How can I correct it?

              System.Net.NetworkCredential c = new System.Net.NetworkCredential();
              c.Password = "my_Credential_Password";
              c.UserName = "[email protected]";
              System.Net.Mail.MailMessage m = new System.Net.Mail.MailMessage();


             m.From = new System.Net.Mail.MailAddress(txtEmail.Text, txtName.Text);


              m.To.Add("[email protected]");
              m.Headers.Add("Reply-To", txtEmail.Text);
              m.Subject = "My Website Enquiry: " + txtSubject.Text;
              m.Body = txtBody.Text;
              m.IsBodyHtml = false;
              System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient s = new System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient();
              s.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
              s.Credentials = c;
              s.DeliveryMethod = System.Net.Mail.SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
              s.EnableSsl = true;
              s.Port = 587;
              s.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
              s.Send(m);

Thanks,

r p · Answer

Hi, Even if I add an extra line - m.Headers.Add("Sender", txtEmail.Text); when I receive my email, in FROM I am getting - "my_Credential_UserName@mydomain.com" . Still working on it!! Thanks,

Sam Hobbs · Answer

I know about SPF. The main thing I know is that it is not easy to understand, is (was) not documented well and the people in the mailing list expect us to spend many hours learning it. The SPF parameters are put into the domain registration of the "from" field; it is not specified in the server that is being used to send email. In other words, in this case, the relevant SPF parameters would not be in the Gmail server. I know I tried to use SPF for some of my email addresses by updating the domain registration for their domain. Anything in SPF Best Practices that is relevant to Gmail should be stated in the documentation that Gmail provides of how to use Gmail and it would certainly be shown in sample code showing how to use Gmail.

Satish Bhat · Answer

Hi Sam, Three of my clients faced the same problem some times back. When I contacted the respective service providers, I got the same reply citing the SPF implementation. They were right also. When one of the clients opted for the alternative provider who allowed the functionality and used it for e-mail communication between registered members, his domain was blocked by Spamhaus SBL. I had to work hard to remove the e-mail address from the SBL blacklist. You are right in " Many SMTP servers do explicitly allow their servers to be used to send email for otehr domains". That is the core business logic of e-mail service providers. But what I meant by " SMTP servers does not allow e-mails to be sent using their server from different e-mail addresses" was most of the service providers demand that you have to have a registered email address with them in the from field as per the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Best Practices. Please go through the SPF Best Practices for web-generated e-mailers. It suggests, " Choose a general address in your domain (service@egreetings.com). Change the "MAIL FROM" to that address. Add a "Sender" header to show to recipient who sent the message. "Sender" is a standard field; see RFC 2822. " This is what happening in r p's case. So r p can try adding Sender header and see the result. m.Headers.Add("Sender", txtEmail.Text);

Sam Hobbs · Answer

If I had the answer I would give it to you. Have you looked at the articles in this web site? I think there is at least one about Gmail explicitly.

r p · Answer

Could you please tell me what change I need to make to get my code working? Thanks

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Satish, where do you see it written that most " of the SMTP servers does not allow e-mails to be sent using their server from different e-mail addresses "? Many SMTP servers do explicitly allow their servers to be used to send email for otehr domains. I think you are guessing and it is an incorreect guess. Note that the information you quoted from Gmail does not say it won't work and it actually implies that it will work.

Satish Bhat · Answer

Most of the SMTP servers does not allow e-mails to be sent using their server from different e-mail addresses [To avoid misuse of their server]. Best option is to include the sender's e-mail address in the message body. Regarding Google Apps " Note that if you choose to send mail from an alternate address through Gmail's servers, your Gmail address will still be included in your email header's sender field, to help prevent your mail from being marked as spam. Most email clients don't display the sender field, though some versions of Microsoft Outlook may display "From yourusername@gmail.com on behalf of customaddress@mydomain.com."

Zoran Horvat · Answer

You did not set From header when sending email. Maybe that's the reason why gmail replaced it with other string, i.e. with UserName from credentials. Question is whether FROM and credentials can differ when using gmail as SMTP server. Zoran

Zoran Horvat · Answer

FROM field can be faked by the server. It is not relevant information in automatic parsers. Zoran

Problem in sending email (From Email address)

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