Set the sender of the notification emails

It's also available an Italian version of this document.

Content index

Introduction

1. Notifications to the site administrators
>> Ensure that the email won't be blocked as spam
>> Enable the recipient to reply directly
>> Enable the recipient to identify the sender

2. Confirmation or copy email to the form submitter

Additional notes

Introduction

Based on 5 years of experience over dozens of different configurations, on a sample of thousands of users, we have implemented a formula which automatically determines the best value for the email sender.
Unless you have an actual reason to change the sender data for email notifications and a solid experience in email delivery systems, we discourage you from wasting your time creating a configuration which most likely will give you problems.

Our default recipe ensures to comply with three essential requirements:

1. Enable the person who receives the email to identify immediately the sender by his name. (That is, the sender Name must correspond to the Name given in the form, when applicable.)
2. Enable the person who receives the email to reply directly, simply by pressing the "Reply" button in his email client.
3. Provide a reasonable assurance that the email will not be blocked by any anti spam filter along the way.

Although any configuration other than the default can work under certain conditions, nevertheless it could not guarantee to comply with all three requirements under all conditions.

A form submission can produce two kinds of email:

1. Notifications emails to the site administrators
2. A confirmation or copy email to the form submitter

It's important to distinguish between this two cases as the correct method to determine the sender varies depending on the email type.


1. Notifications to the site administrators

Ensure that the email won't be blocked as spam

To reduce the risk that the message is blocked by any anti spam systems along the way, by default Fox Contact uses the email address found in Joomla global configuration as sender email.
Therefore, a typical sender could be:

Why you must not use the user email address as sender address?
Using the email address provided by the user, would appear a falsification.
For example, let's suppose that the form is submitted by tom@yahoo.com and that this address is used as sender. Your server certainly has not been designated by Yahoo as an official SMTP for the domain yahoo.com, therefore this email technically speaking is a forgery, so it will be quarantined by any decent anti spam system.

Enable the recipient to reply directly

The email address of the sender is specified as Reply-to in the email source, so that it will be automatically used as recipient when pressing the "Reply" button on your own email client.
For example, the source of a typical message could be:

Enable the recipient to identify the sender

To identify the sender, it is used the name given in the form, when applicable. There isn't any contraindication in doing so.
Here it is the ultimate message source:

2. Confirmation or copy email to the form submitter

In this case there aren't too many constraints, since the sender is you and it doesn't change every submission.
As long as your web server and DNS service are configured properly, it's possible to use virtually any email address as email sender.
If not otherwise specified, Fox Contact uses as sender, the Name and Email address taken from the Joomla email global configuration.
If you want instead to differentiate the Fox Contact notification emails by the Joomla notification emails, you can specify different sender data in the Fox Contact email configuration setup screen.
Here it is an example of confirmation email for the submitter:

Additional notes

Your mail server could automatically change the sender data
If you are using an authenticated email server, consider that it knows your real identity and email address, and it could consider your attempt to forge the sender address as an abuse. It could therefore prevent you from sending the message or automatically fix the sender email address using your real data, which are known thanks to the authentication process.
The Google's SMTP servers deliver the email, but force the sender according to your real data .
Check whether you are using email authentication under "Joomla Global Configuration" > "Server" > "Mail Settings".