Emailing from SQL 2K 2

[rdgerken]

Hi all,

I've been doing a little research on emailing from within SQL 2K, and I'm scared... lol. Well, it seems that if you use the built in emailing functionality, you have to have a MIME client installed, set up a user account, have them logged in, etc. Then I've seen some third party packages out there that allow you to do everything without the headache of having the client installed and what not. Can anyone give me some feedback on the best route to go? I don't want to spend a lot of money for a third party addin, but if it's worth it, then I would consider going that route... or maybe using the built-in functionality isn't that bad? Any input on this is most appreciated! TIA

 

[RAS56]

One solution is

http://www.sqldev.net/xp/xpsmtp.htm.

I have installed it on several of our servers to use for notifications and it has worked without any problems. I was a bit like you when I needed to implement email support, the task seemed pretty daunting - this made it easy. One caveat, this will only send email, won't recieve.

 

[mrdenny]

The builtin features work fine. You do need to have outlook installed (I recommend Outlook 2000 for SQL 2000). You SQL Server will also need to be running as a domain user which has a mailbox.

The up side to using the builtin features is that if a job fails you don't need to do any extra coding to have the job send an email. You can also use all your builtin alerting functions and operators. You can't do this with the third part solutions.

If you do require smtp then I would recommend xp_smtp_sendmail which is the URL that RAS56 gave you. It lets you send email quickly and easily without needing to have Outlook installed or an exchange account.

You don't need to have exchange to send mail using the builtin features, however it does make it easier. Here is my FAQ on setting up mail in SQL 2000 faq962-4452.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000) / MCTS (SQL 2005)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com