PHP mail() function returning false, but with no error

Question

I am using php\'s mail() function for the simple process of E-Mailing the input of a contact form to the respective person. The strange thing is that the form always used to

Answer 1

More likely a host config. I think (but may be wrong) that mail() use the server mail command. So if you have no sendmail/postfix/ssmtp or other MTA installed on the server it cannot work.
If they told you to address a SMTP server directly you should use another library that implements the SMTP protocol and a Mail class to build mail and send it via SMTP directly (in PEAR or Zend Framework PHP classes you'll find that)