PHPMailer settings for correct email sending

HostBrook recommends using PHPMailer for email sending from PHP.
Please see below PHPMailer settings and PHP code example that works on our servers.

PHPMailer project at GitHub.

Summary of this page:

• PHPMailer settings for cPanel email
• PHPMailer settings for Professional Email (OX Drive)
• How to add DKIM signature
• Example of PHP code
• DKIM for WordPress Mailer

PHPMailer settings for cPanel email server

$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = 'xxxxxxxNNNNN.prod.iad2.secureserver.net';
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'SSL';
$mail->Port = 587;
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = 'mail@mydomain.com';
$mail->Password = 'EMAILPASSWORD';

Replace xxxxxxxNNNNN with your correct ID that you can find in the address bar while login in cPanel

Important (!): If you use cPanel email accounts to send emails via PHPMailer, be sure email routing set to LOCAL.

PHPMailer settings for Professional Email (OX Drive)

$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = 'smtpout.secureserver.net';
$mail->Port = 465;
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = 'your@email';
$mail->Password = 'EMAILPASSWORD';

Important (!): If you use Professional email accounts to send emails via PHPMailer, be sure email routing set to REMOTE.

How to add DKIM signature

Although GoDaddy doesn't provide DKIM signature option for both cPanel and Workspace emails (this option is available for Microsoft 365 email plan only) you still can send emails with DKIM signature using PHPMailer as an email sender. This can decrease the probability to get your emails into the spam box.

If you would like to add DKIM signature to your emails that sent via PHPMailer, please follow the steps below.

• 1

  Generate DKIM Public and Private Keys

  Follow the link https://tools.socketlabs.com/dkim/generator

  Generate Public and Private Keys using any selector you want. Save them as well as a host name value for your DNS record.

• 2

  Add _domainkey TXT record in DNS

  Add TXT record in the domain DNS. Use the HOST value and Public Key that were provided in the prevous step. Added record should looks like this:

  

• 3

  Add DKIM data for PHPMailer

  You have to set three values for PHPMailer: Domain, Email, Selector and Private Key.

  You have two options to add Private Key:

  • Set path to file "private.key" with Private Key record:

    $mail->DKIM_private = 'path/to/your/private.key';

    or:

  • Add Private Key directly

    $mail->DKIM_private_string = 'your-private-key';

  Here is an example of the code for the second option:

  $mail->DKIM_domain = 'mydomain.com';
$mail->DKIM_selector = 's123';
$mail->DKIM_identity = 'mail@mydomain.com';
$mail->DKIM_private_string = '-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEpQIBAAKCAQEAu6VpFUbCBwlB+7qw9qjf1pAqGppJIUqsMF/n7f3JGI7b85mW
...
7ZorWXSeJGuLpyn2onMSH7X2o8Ku9KTrJtENzAOghCLt0pQeMW2cF24=
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----';

• 4

  Check your DKIM signature works

  Here some online tools to check your emails:

  • Check if DKIM record is shown and has a correct format:

    https://dmarcly.com/tools/dkim-record-checker

  • Test the Spammyness of your Emails:

    https://www.mail-tester.com
    https://app.mailgenius.com

Example of PHP code

The PHP code below uses cPanel email server settings and DKIM signature.
Just replace values in {} brackets with your data to make it work:

use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;

require_once '/PHPMailer/Exception.php';
require_once '/PHPMailer/PHPMailer.php';
require_once '/PHPMailer/SMTP.php';

$mail = new PHPMailer(true);

$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = '{xxxxxxxNNNNN}.prod.iad2.secureserver.net';
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'SSL';
$mail->Port = 587;
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = '{EMAIL_FROM}';
$mail->Password = '{EMAIL_PASSWORD}';

$mail->DKIM_domain = '{DOMAIN_NAME}';
$mail->DKIM_selector = '{SELECTOR}';
$mail->DKIM_identity = '{EMAIL_FROM}';
$mail->DKIM_private_string = '-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
{PRIVATE_KEY}
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----';

$mail->isHTML(true);
$mail->CharSet = 'UTF-8';
$mail->Encoding = 'base64';

$mail->setFrom('{EMAIL_FROM}', '{NAME_FROM}');
$mail->Subject = '{MAIL_SUBJECT}';
$mail->addAddress('{EMAIL_TO}', '{NANE_TO}');
$mail->Body = '{EMAIL_HTML_BODY}';
$mail->AltBody = '{EMAIL_PLAIN_TEXT_BODY}';

try {
    $mail->send();
    // Message has been sent successfully

} catch (Exception $e) {
    // Error occurred during email sending
    echo 'Error occurred: '.$mail->ErrorInfo;

}

DKIM for WordPress Mailer

By default WordPress mailer works with PHPMailer like with PHP mailer what can occur to delivery issues. To prevent it you need to set-up SMTP settings using some plugin or just easly modify functions.php file of your template by adding PHPMailer custom initialization. Here is an example of how to add server and DKIM settings for GoDaddy/HostBrook accounts:

add_action( 'phpmailer_init', 'phpmailer_config' );
function phpmailer_config( $phpmailer ) {

  // Server settings
  $phpmailer->isSMTP();
  $phpmailer->Host = '{xxxxxxxNNNNN}.prod.iad2.secureserver.net';
  $phpmailer->Port = '587';
  $phpmailer->SMTPSecure = 'SSL';
  $phpmailer->SMTPAuth = true;
  $phpmailer->Username = '{EMAIL_FROM}';
  $phpmailer->Password = '{EMAIL_PASSWORD}';
  $phpmailer->From = '{EMAIL_FROM}';
  $phpmailer->FromName = '{NAME_FROM}';

  // DKIM settings
  $phpmailer->Encoding = 'quoted-printable';
  $phpmailer->DKIM_domain = '{DOMAIN_NAME}';
  $phpmailer->DKIM_selector = '{SELECTOR}';
  $phpmailer->DKIM_passphrase = '';
  $phpmailer->DKIM_identity = $phpmailer->From;
  $phpmailer->DKIM_private_string =
  '-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
  {PRIVATE_KEY}
  -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----';
}


• Required settings for correct work of cPanel emails
• Settings for Microsoft 365 emails from GoDaddy
• Required settings for correct work of Workspace emails