[web] PHP beginner

I usually test my php server with this
phpinfo();
?>

PHP requires that the server actually be running PHP most free web servers don't have support for PHP to my knowledge.

you can test it yourself on your machine by installing a web server, apache+php+mysql is the usual good combo, you can find them for Linux and Windows.

For windows XAMPP seems to work pretty good, all ya need to do is install it not as much setup involved works pretty good if all ya want to do is write and test, and not actually host it as a live website.

Any how good luck to ya.

So I installed PHP5 and that XAMPP. So how do I open my .php file?

Also, when I first ran XAMPP, the http://localhost worked and now it doesn't after I ran it again.

Well you should dump it in your HTDOCS directory that is provided by XAMPP, should have a link in your start menu, I believe. Once there it should be assesable via http://localhost/YOURFILENAMEHERE.php if not check the control panel to make sure apache is still running, also make sure that you can go to the config provided by it.

nevermind, for some reason I had to manually run the apahce, it wouldnt run from the actual program. Anyway I'm up and PHP'ing. peace. thanks.

Does anyone know why mail() function fails? I'm assuming I need something else running or my SMTP = should be something else. my php.ini has:

[mail function]
; For Win32 only.
SMTP = localhost
smtp_port = 25

; For Win32 only.
;sendmail_from = me@example.com
sendmail_from = me@localhost.com