First I'll describe the basis of what I'm looking for, then I'll get
into the deatails I can't seem to find.  Many websites have a button
you can press to reccommend their content to a friend.  When I press
the button, a new page pops up in which I type my name and email, my
friend's name and email and a short personal message.  When I press
send, the server adds my comments to a standard email body that
includes a link to their content.  When my friend opens their mailbox,
the see a message from me, with no obvious hint that it came from the
server.

What I've been looking for is a tool that does not tack on extra stuff
to my personal message (such as a link to the site's content).  I'd
like to use the form to send email from addresses which I do not have
access to from work.  I realize this would be an excellent tool for
spammers, and perhaps that's why it isn't typically implemented.

If anyone can find a URL where somthing like this is done or can
describe how I could set it up myself, I'd be very interested.  If it
does not yet exist, however, you should know my programming experience
is somewhat limited to HTML and javascript and that I'd rather not
keep a server of my own running 24/7.  Thanks!

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Clarification of Question by carpiediem-ga on 11 Jan 2005 14:37 PST

I think I'd be able to handle the coding on this- I'm just holding out
hope that I can get around running & paying for a server.  Thank you
for your comment.

This would be very easy to do in PHP, but you would need a server
running somewhere. In essence this would be composed of:

1. A web page on that server that only you knew about
2. A form on that web page that asked for to, from, subject and
content; a password would also be nice to thwart spammers if they find
it.
3. A single, simple PHP script that the form would submit to. The
script would check the password and send the email out. You could do
it in other scripting languages, of course. But not Javascript.

Some notes:

1. You would need a domain and a hoster with PHP. This can be had for
very little these days. $5/mo minimum perhaps?
2. Although email would seem to come from the "out" email you give, it
would not in fact come from that email. Spam blockers will take note
of that, but, so long as you don't abuse it, you should be fine.
3. If you had a friend with hosting, you could easily piggyback on
him. The bandwidth would be sub-minimal. He would need to trust you,
however, as lots of spam emails from you might get his domain in
trouble.

I'd write the whole thing up for $20. (I basically have it coded
already for myself, but it would need some changes.) I don't know if
that's legit here. Maybe someone else has it coded already.

And someone else may know of a provider that offers some sort of
"service" along these lines; I never heard of one.