Dummy SMTP server as a service

Question

I have a Windows Server 2008 machine with IIS installed which is hosting a webapp that is sending some notification mails once-in-a-while. What I'd like to do is to monitor the email sent by the application. For this I need a dummy SMTP server which intercepts messages but won't send them further but save them locally on the hard disk.

I've already found some of them like Papercut, SMTP4Dev. The problem with these that I have to be logged on the server all the time which is not suitable because the server has only 2+1 TS connections. I like to run a program like these as a windows service and check the mails when I need them.

Answer 1

We use http://mailtrap.io web service in developement and staging environment. It is platform-independent and doesn't require you to run your own SMTP.

It offers:

• All emails in one place
• Shared access for dev team to the inbox
• Developer tools to analyze emails
• Flexible configuration

Answer 2

THis one is quite nice, very simple and only a 600k Java file.

http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DevNullSmtp.jsp

Should work fine for you!

James

Answer 3

You can try hmailserver, it's got extensive logging capabilities, and it will run on the background and save the logs in text files, without actually sending the mails. You can use it on a production system later when your testing is done.

Answer 4

I think you can use SC and run them as a service. See also install service in windows server 2008

Answer 5

Disclaimer, I worked on the project

For the benefit of readers of this post at a later date, there is also now Clickity, which does a full SMTP server as a service solution, plus other features on top.