a) Open the "php.ini". For XAMPP,it is located in C:\XAMPP\php\php.ini. Find out if you are using WAMP or LAMP server. Note : Make a backup of php.ini file
b) Search [mail function] in the php.ini file.
You can find like below.
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/smtp
SMTP = localhost
; http://php.net/smtp-port
smtp_port = 25
; For Win32 only.
; http://php.net/sendmail-from
;sendmail_from = postmaster@localhost
Change the localhost to the smtp server name of your ISP. No need to change the smtp_port. Leave it as 25. Change sendmail_from from postmaster@localhost to your domain email address which will be used as from address..
So for me, it will become like this.
[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = smtp.planetghost.com
smtp_port = 25
; For Win32 only.
sendmail_from = [email protected]
auth_username = [email protected]
auth_password = example_password
c) Restart the XAMPP or WAMP(apache server) so that changes will start working.
d) Now try to send the mail using the mail() function ,
mail("[email protected]","Success","Great, Localhost Mail works");
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Another way
Gmail servers use SMTP Authentication under SSL. I think that there is no way to use the mail() function under that circumstances, so you might want to check these alternatives:
They both support SMTP auth under SSL.
Credit : Check reference answer here