Joomla! 1.5.12 Changes were made to the framework PHPMailer class in order to allow secure connections (SSL/TLS) to SMTP servers. Given these changes, Joomla is now able to use services such as Gmail to handle e-mail from the application. If you have access to a Gmail account, consider testing this new functionality.

In the Administrator Panel, navigate to Global Configuration > Server and set the following options:

* Mailer: SMTP Server
* SMTP Security: SSL
* SMTP Port: 465
* SMTP Authentication: Yes
* SMTP Username: Your Gmail username
* SMTP Password: Your Gmail password
* SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com

Then retest to ensure e-mail services continue to work.