First off, I'm not a server guy in the slightest. As far as I've ever been concerned before, email runs on a combination of magic and fairy dust.
All I want to do is set up a box that I have next to me with a bugtracker software, throw it in the basement and go "yay" and then bash my face into the brickwall that is "getting people to use it."
Problem: bugtracker can't send email.
Nothing I've tried has generated an error that I can even go "hey, I got this error, what do I do?" at Google, there are no logs generated, no server warnings, nothing. Just a complete lack of emails being sent out (the most I have is Mantis telling me that there was a problem and to check the settings).
I know literally nothing about what I'm doing, half the options I'm given involve things that I know nothing about, and documentation is scattered, incomplete, or written for someone who actually knows WTF they're doing. In trying to research the problem I've been directed at at least three different tools, without any advice as to how to use them, and when it doesn't work I'm back to where I started: knowing jack and all about the problem.
All I want is a localhost email server that sends outgoing email to Verizon's smtp relay server (or Google's, I'm not picky) to a desired address so that when something on the bugtracker changes, it can notify everyone watching it. We do have our own company domain and email server, but installing the bugtracker there has had its own set of problems that are unresolvable,* and I can't use it as the outgoing mail server due to the dynamic IP address we're on in the office (we have to use Verizon's relay server to send email from our own domain anyway).
*1) it doesn't run PHP and 2) any bugtracker that uses ASPX won't work because of other settings in our server that we can't change without breaking two hosted sites we run for our clients. Basically, the server is held together with spit and bubblegum so when I was offered this unused machine I thought I'd have an easier time.