By far the majority of requests for help are still something to do with emails - mainly not sending! This is normally down to server restrictions that are based on limitations to recipients per email or time based choking.

One potential way around this might be to channel your emails via an SMTP server so the plugin below might be worth a try. Amend the plugin code below with your smtp server, your usewrname and password. Upload it and activate it then try sending your notifications. If it works send some kudos (or hard cash) my way!

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: SMTP Mailer
Plugin URI: http://subscribe2.wordpress.com
Description: Allows wp_mail() to send via SMTP server.
Version: 1.0
Author: Matthew Robinson
Author URI: http://subscribe2.wordpress.com
*/

/*
Copyright (C) 2006-8 Matthew Robinson

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
*/

/*
Instructions
1/ Change 'smtp.domain.com' to the server name of you out-going email server
2/ Change 'my_username' to your email mailbox username
3/ Change 'my_password' to your email mailbaox password
4/ Save this file and upload it to wp-content/plugins, then activate the plugin as normal
5/ Test is works by emailing a notification via Write->Subscribers in the Subscribe2 plugin
*/

add_action('phpmailer_init', 'wp_mail_to_smtp');

function wp_mail_to_smtp(&$phpmailer) {
	$phpmailer->Mailer = 'smtp';
	$phpmailer->SMTPAuth = true;
	$phpmailer->Host = 'smtp.domain.com';
	$phpmailer->Port = '25';
	$phpmailer->Username = 'my_username';
	$phpmailer->Password = 'my_password';
}
?>

Version 4.6 of the Plugin is now available for download.

Version 4.6 is for WordPress 2.3.x and 2.5.x users only! This version has been tested on WordPress 2.5.

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Fixed mis-reporting of server error when unsubscribing
• Fixed fatal errors involving buttonsnap library
• Improved database entry management for new subscribers
• Fixed issue where Subscribe2 grabbed the first page from the database even if it wasn’t published
• Fixed upgrade reporting for Debug and Uninstaller plugins

There is still two known issues caused by glitches in the WordPress core files. A fix is discussed here and the second issue (Profile pages) is fixed for WordPress 2.5.1.

If you use this plugin make a donation to support future development!

To install correctly:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder and buttonsnap.php file are uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

Well, it seems that WordPress 2.5 and Subscribe2 4.5 are being used massively judging by the rapid number of comments on the release of the latest version of this plugin

There appear to be 4 major problems people are running into:

1. Fatal Errors
2. Missing Profile Page
3. Missing Emails
4. Altered Page Titles

Fatal Errors:

This is most likely being caused by conflicts with other plugins that use buttonsnap.php. To fix this look at around line 50 in subscribe2.php for the following code:

require(ABSPATH . 'wp-content/plugins/subscribe2/include/buttonsnap.php');

And replace it with:

if (!function_exists(buttonsnap_textbutton)) {
	require(ABSPATH . 'wp-content/plugins/subscribe2/include/buttonsnap.php');
}

Missing Profile Page:

This is a bug introduced by the new menu system in WordPress 2.5. Either use a Drop Down Menu Plugin or apply the fix I submitted to the trac.

Missing Emails:

I’ve gone back to using wp_mail() in this release and it’s working fine for me. If you are having problems go back to mail() by replacing instances of @wp_mail( with @mail( in the subscribe2.php file. Also, read this post and contact your site host about email restrictions and ask them to look at the server logs.

Altered Page Titles:

Again, this is a bug in the WordPress code files. See here for the fix.

Version 4.5 of the Plugin is now available for download. (A little earlier than I’d hoped but WordPress 2.5 is out!)

Version 4.5 is for WordPress 2.3.x and 2.5.x users only! This version has been tested on WordPress 2.3.3 and 2.5RC2.

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Added Support for WordPress 2.5!
• Fixed HTML typo in admin submission message
• Fixed time display for cron jobs in Options->Subscribe2 when displayed on blogs using a time offset
• Added Debug plugin to the download package
• Improved descriptions of email template keywords in Options->Subscribe2
• Display subscribers in batches of 50 in Manage->Subscribers
• Fixed some XHTML validation errors
• Improved admin menu layout for compliance with WordPress 2.5
• Reverted to using wp_mail instead of mail to ensure proper header encoding
• Improved mail header formatting - thanks to Chris Carlson
• Add ability to skip email notification using a Custom Field (s2mail set as ‘no’)
• Improved CSV export - thanks to Aaron Axelsen
• Added some compatibility for WPMU - thanks to Aaron Axelsen
• Added some error feedback to blog users if mails fail to send
• Moved Buttonsnap due to far to many fatal error complaints
• Added option to send notifications for Private posts
• Improved handling of notification for Password Protected Posts

There is still one known issue caused by a glitch in the WordPress core files. A Fix is discussed here.

If you use this plugin make a donation to support future development!

To install correctly:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder and buttonsnap.php file are uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

I’m hoping to release a new version of Subscribe2 in the coming week but I would like a few volunteers to test the new version first.

In this latest version I have:

• Changed the Manage->Subscribers screen to show subscribers in batches of 50
• Updated the QuickTag button code to work with WordPress 2.5
• Added an option to not send a notification on a per-post basis

The last of these involves using a custom field of “s2mail” set to “No” (case insensitive).

All of these features need a little testing in a wider audience before being released in the wild so if you are interested and comfortable testing code and debugging please post a comment below.

Version 4.4 of the Plugin is now available for download.

Version 4.4 is for WordPress 2.3.x users only! This version has been tested on WordPress 2.3.2. This version has been released very close to the previous version due to some critical bugs that have been fixed in the cron handling functions.

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Fixed non-substitution of TABLE keyword
• Fixed bug in usermeta update calls in unsubscribe_registered_users function
• Fixed bug in array handling in cron function that may have stopped emails sending
• Improved array handling in the Digest function
• Added an Un-installer to completely removed Subscribe2 from your WordPress install

There are still 2 known issues caused by glitches in the WordPress core files. Fixes are discussed here.

If you use this plugin make a donation to support future development!

To install correctly:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder and buttonsnap.php file are uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

Version 4.3 of the Plugin is now available for download.

Version 4.3 is for WordPress 2.3.x users only! This version has been tested on WordPress 2.3.1

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Fixed bug where digest emails were sent to unsubscribed users - Thanks to Mr Papa
• Stripped slashes from Subject when sending from Write->Mail Subscribers - Thanks to James
• Ensured all admin pages created by Subscribe2 are valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional code
• Added default mail templates and other missed string values to i18n files to allow easier first time translation - thanks to Kjell
• Added option to set the hour for digest email notifications provided the schedule interval is one day or greater
• Moved option variable declaration to ensure better caching
• Fixed bug where cron tasks were not removed when options were reset
• Fixed email notifications for future dated posts
• Fixed QuickTag Icons and mouse-over floating text

There are still 2 known issues caused by glitches in the WordPress core files. Fixes are discussed here.

If you use this plugin make a donation to support future development!

To install correctly:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder and buttonsnap.php file are uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

Version 4.2 of the Plugin is now available for download.

Version 4.2 is for WordPress 2.3.x users only! This version has been tested on WordPress 2.3.1

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Added translation capability to user feedback strings - thanks to Lise
• Corrected some other translation strings
• Fixed bug in notification emails to admins when new users subscribe
• Updated default options code

There are still 2 known issues caused by glitches in the WordPress core files. Fixes are discussed here.

If you use this plugin make a donation to support future development!

To install correctly:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder and buttonsnap.php file are uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

Version 4.1 of the Plugin is now available for download.

Version 4.1 is for WordPress 2.3.x users only! This version has been tested on WordPress 2.3.1 and 2.3.0

Users of WordPress 2.0.x should download Version 2.22 of Subscribe2. Users of WordPress 2.1.x and 2.2.x should download Version 3.8.

This version contains the following improvements:

• Fixed sending of notifications for Pages
• Fixed password protected post bug for Digest email notifications
• Fixed blank email headers if admin data is not at ID 1

There are still 2 known issues caused by glitches in the WordPress core files. Fixes are discussed here.

If you use this plugin make a donation to support future development!

To install correctly:

1. Deactivate your exisiting Subscribe2 Plugin
2. Use FTP software to delete the old plugin and upload the new version
3. Ensure that the complete subscribe2 folder and buttonsnap.php file are uploaded
4. Activate the new version of the plugin

There are currently two known issues with Subscribe2 and it’s features that are being caused by the core WordPress files. If you feel comfortable editing PHP code here are the fixes:

Issue 1: Upon activating the plugin you may get an error regarding openbase_dir

Issue 1 has been fixed by an update to the WordPress core files.

To resolve this issue locate the file install-helper.php in wp-admin. On line 2 you’ll find the following
require_once ('../wp-config.php');

Change this to:
require_once (dirname(dirname(__FILE__)).'/wp-config.php');


Issue 2: When a Subscriber confirms a subscribption the webpage shown will replace the names of all your pages with “Subscription Confirmed”

To resolve this issue you have two options:

Option 1: Comment out line 2183 in Subscribe2.php.

Change it from:
add_filter('the_title', array(&$this, 'title_filter'));

To:
//add_filter('the_title', array(&$this, 'title_filter'));

Option 2: Locate classes.php in wp-includes and edit line 521.

Change it from:
$output .= $indent . '<li class="' . $css_class . '"><a>ID) . '" title="' . attribute_escape(apply_filters('the_title', $page->post_title)) . '">' . apply_filters('the_title', $page->post_title) . '</a>';

To:
$output .= $indent . '<li class="' . $css_class . '"><a>ID) . '" title="' . attribute_escape($page->post_title) . '">' . $page->post_title . '</a>';