Visvanath Ratnaweera

What is the tutorial you are following?

> Fasthosts have even suggested that the 'moodledata' directory is fine with permissions of 700?

Only if the owner of 'moodledata' (and everything below it) is the user who owns the webserver (Apache2) processes.

This usually means that they are trying out the next version, 3.0!

You wrote:
> I will try to install it.

Why only _try_? On Linux, spec. on Ubuntu, it is a child's play. Did you check the Ubuntu documentation I have linked to?

> I hope I can be able to run it in the same web server I have moodle installed.

That is what I mean, when I say "to send mails through the local SMTP service".

>But my original question is about sending emails through PHP built-in feature that moodle provides.

Could you provide your sources?

> I don´t know why it doesn´t work. Any ideas?

Perhaps because there is no such _it_. For details see Ken's answer.

Also read the section on spam problem in sending mail from a random home box.

Hi

Since the experts are having a break, I'll take a shot: "For Moodle the LDAP database is fully read-only". Would that help?