So apparently XAMPP has a release where they have broken the Mercury installation by failing to include the required QUEUE directory. Well, at least now we know what to tell other people that are trying to get it to work!

As usual with XAMPP it advisable to remove references to localhost if you at all plan to use the server on the Internet. 

I recently installed XAMPP 1.8.3 for Windows and have been attempting to set up Mercury Mail for use with my MediaWiki. Unfortunately, everyone on the internet seems to have a different way of setting up Mercury.

I'm hoping someone here knows the correct (minimal) configuration steps for Mercury to work with MediaWiki on a brand new dynamic IP server (with a directed domain name). I do not have an external SMTP server; the objective is to be self contained.

Thanks!

Without knowing what default settings XAMPP may have used for Mercury, here are some general pointers:

- Make sure the local domains settings are correct. Check Mercury help or the PDF manual for details, and do it exactly the way it says there.

- Load the Mercury modules you actually need and remove the rest.

- Don't add settings where not needed. Defining which interface to listen on or specifying name servers is seldom required. If in doubt check Mercury help or the manual.

- Use real host name / domain name in any module that has Internet access.

- Make sure firewall settings allow you to access the Internet. Make sure your Internet provider isn't blocking port 25.

- If there is some antivirus software running on the server, exclude all Mercury directories from real-time scanning.

Ok, let me try this way:

It appears that MediaWiki only needs an SMTP server. So I set up the core, MercuryS, and MercuryC. Remember that my IP is dynamic:

• For in the Core
• Internet Name: domain.net (set to my domain, obviously)
• Local Domains
• localhost - localhost
• localhost - [127.0.0.1]
• localhost - domain.net 

• For MercuryS
• IP Interface: Left blank

• For MercuryC
• Smart Host: [127.0.0.1]
• Credentials: (Login & Password set)

• Manage Local Users: 
• postmaster password set

Now, with those basic settings (and port 25 definitely open), I attempt to Send Mail Message as a test to a gmail account. The system says nothing, does nothing, except give me an error chirp. There's no log attempt, and nothing happens in MercuryMail except that beep. So at this point, I haven't even gotten to setting up MediaWiki (which as far as I can tell, is covered by http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgSMTP).

To deliver mail externally you either need to use the MercuryE Module (direct SMTP delivery) or have some external SMTP server relay your messages using MercuryC. Pointing MercuryC back to MercuryS (via 127.0.0.1) is not going to work.

Unless your computer name is localhost it's probably better to use the real host name, and add the LAN IP address as well.

After changes please restart Mercury and try sending a message using a regular email client (Pegasus, Thunderbird, Outlook or whatever) from the same computer or from some other computer in your local network. Watch the MercuryS console to see what happens.

Ok, I attempted the following:

• Core Module - added:

• localhost - [192.168.1.101]
• Hostname - [192.168.1.101] (Hostname being my computer's name, of course)
• Hostname - [127.0.0.1]
• Hostname - localhost
• Hostname - domain.net
  

• MercuryC - OFF

• MercuryE - ON
  
• Name Servers: 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220 (OpenDNS.com)

• MercuryP - ON

 Using Thunderbird from the server computer as postmaster@domain.net I received the following error message: 

An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: Service not available, closing channel.. Please verify that your email address is correct in your Mail preferences and try again.

 Checking Mercury, SMTP Server connection history shows:

• Connection from 192.168.1.1, Sun Jul 28 11:20:32 2013
• EHLO [127.0.0.1]
• MAIL FROM: <postmaster@domain.net> SIZE=381
• Job aborted, Sun Jul 28 11:20:32 2013
• -----
• Unexpected abort talking to 192.168.1.1 

Logfile shows: 421 Service not available, closing channel.

OK, so now we see that there has been a connection to MercuryS. From MercuryS' perspective the client aborted message transfer, though. The error message in Thunderbird ("Service not available, closing channel") doesn't actually sound like it's coming from Mercury. Is there some other SMTP service installed on that server, perhaps as part of IIS?

Local domains should probably work like that, but you should replace the first line with Hostname - Hostname (both being the real computer name). If name servers are correctly set up in Windows Mercury will get them automatically, so it's in most cases best to leave that field blank.

Down at the very end, I listed the logfile error for the MercuryS server:

421 Service not available, closing channel.

So Mercury is the culprit? Since this is Windows7, I checked and (for now) the UAC is turned off entirely and, just in case, all users have "full access" to the Mercury folder for read/write permission.

Is this repeatable? If so please switch on session logging for MercuryS to see full details of everything that happens during the connection. You can switch it off again as soon as you have a session log file, it shouldn't be switched on in normal use.

Hey, I'm having this same issue with 421 Service not avaiable, closing terminal

I'm running windows 7 86x professional. 

Basically my goal is to send an email using thunderbird on the localhost (also in a virtual box).  I could care less about the internet - for now.

The tutorial I followed was from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU4PT7xMSO0 I have tried countless variations and tweaks to try and get it to work without any success. 

My error log for my SMTP server is this: 

22:06:52.006: Connection from 127.0.0.1, Thu Aug 01 22:06:52 2013<lf>

22:06:52.006: << 220 localhost ESMTP server ready.<cr><lf>

22:06:52.076: >> EHLO [127.0.0.1]<cr><lf>

22:06:52.076: << 250-localhost Hello [127.0.0.1]; ESMTPs are:<cr><lf>250-TIME<cr><lf>

22:06:52.076: << 250-SIZE 0<cr><lf>

22:06:52.076: << 250-8BITMIME<cr><lf>

22:06:52.076: << 250 HELP<cr><lf>

22:06:52.096: >> MAIL FROM:<mammoth@localhost.com> SIZE=386<cr><lf>

22:06:52.096: << 421 Service not available, closing channel.<cr><lf>

22:06:52.096: --- Connection closed normally at Thu Aug 01 22:06:52 2013. --- 

Just a note, when I use a different email program the line 22:06:52.076: >> EHLO [127.0.0.1]<cr><lf> changes to  21:04:58.306: >> EHLO unknown<cr><lf>

 If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it, I'm doing this project for fun, and so far SMTP is nothing but a frustration.

Another note, for my Mercury SMTP Client, I notice this is the service name information:

Host file : c:\windows....

Domain:

Domain is blank, and this is suspicious,  I've tried looking into how to configure this portion and wasn't able to find anything.

I finally solved my issue after a week of trying many mail servers. In this particular case with MercuryMail this is what happend:

In c:/XAMPP/MERCURYMAIL/ directory there should be a QUEUE folder.  For me, it was not there by default.

After adding this folder It works. I hope this is the answer to your problem as well.