Mercury is actually by default already set up for normal usage. During setup you get information about MercuryE (direct SMTP delivery) and MercuryC (using a relay server) and can choose what is best for you. The only thing you really need to adjust is the local domains information. If the information about this in the installation program isn't sufficient you can get more in Mercury help or the enclosed PDF manual. If needed you can install some of the included antispam and antivirus addons, or wait to decide about this later.

There are of course a number of things outside of Mercury that need to be set up as well. You need to make sure no firewall is blocking access, forward the relevant ports from the Internet router, and exclude all Mercury directories from realtime virus scanning.

If you after doing all that still have problems I would suggest posting the contents of your mercury.ini file here so we can review the settings.

hi, i have installed xampp and the mercury mail. everything works but the mercury mail. i followed step by step procedures to set it up correctly and nothing is working. i am using windows 7.

it wont send any mail at all and when ever i try to i just get a ting sound when ever i go to [file] send mail message. i have checked with my ISP for the right smtp address and to conferm no ports are blocked and that i am able to use a mail server and they said i have green lights all the way. a few years back i had it all working fine but recently installed it again. no firewalls are blocking mercury mail as i made rules for it. the problem is there is so many options and tick boxes its hard to list all of them here. as far as i know everything is setup correctly acording to the instructions i followed on http://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/Mercury_Mail_Configuration_in_Windows im confused

[quote user="ruler"]

hi, i have installed xampp and the mercury mail. everything works but the mercury mail. i followed step by step procedures to set it up correctly and nothing is working. i am using windows 7.

it wont send any mail at all and when ever i try to i just get a ting sound when ever i go to [file] send mail message. i have checked with my ISP for the right smtp address and to conferm no ports are blocked and that i am able to use a mail server and they said i have green lights all the way. a few years back i had it all working fine but recently installed it again. no firewalls are blocking mercury mail as i made rules for it. the problem is there is so many options and tick boxes its hard to list all of them here. as far as i know everything is setup correctly acording to the instructions i followed on http://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/Mercury_Mail_Configuration_in_Windows im confused

[/quote]

From your description and without any error messages is isn't easy to see where the problem is.  Set up session logging on module MercuryC just while you try to send a mail and then paste the result here.

Remember to blank out any passwords or encoded passwords before pasting the output and turn off session logging afterwards.

hmm it doesnt log any errors for some reason although the option is ticked and directory is selected.

maybe if i explained what i am trying to use it for someone hopefully might be able to point me in the right direction. 

i have windows 7 32bit OS just one computer connected to a router which connects directly to the net. i have installed a phpbb forum so a few friends can post some junk. im trying to setup the smtp server and the pop server on mercury so the forum can send registration emails and notification emails.

i am using windows live mail to connect and retrieve my mail (well trying too anyway) although the other hotmail accounts work fine. i can setup and add accounts to windows live with no problem but the actual mercury  settings are for me just imposible. 

i also dont understand which servers/clients to use on mercury for this task and what confuses me the most is the smtp settings. mercury shows in the list sn smtp server which i wish to use but why do i need to use a server address from my ISP or similar when i already have the server in mercury? shouldnt i be able to send and receive emails using the mercury servers without using someone elses severs? this is what confuses me more than anything. im guessing if i understood how it all worked i could set it up easier. looking for basic setups for dummys like me is imposible.