Mercury setup problems

[Georgezx9]

Hi all.

I have installed xamp and mercury, to allow me to test on my home PC various sites I am developing. I don't need it to send to external mail addresses as yet.

However I cannot get the mail function to work from a script, but it does from elsewhere. I am confused now as well, by the postmaster and the root users. I assume Mercury sends from postmaster because that's the username in sendmail.ini?

Mercury successfully sends a test mail from postmaster@localhost to root@localhost.com, note its from ..localhost, not localhost.com - why?
Outlook successfully sends a mail from root@localhost.com to root@localhost.com

Outlook sends a test mail to root@localhost.com from root, I assume Outlook sends from root to root as this is the only account set up, but why cant it use postmaster, it would not even let me set up a postmaster account

PHP script does not work - this is my biggest issue?, does the pop 3 user have to match the two ini files.

The various settings I have changed are:

Sendmail.ini
smtp_server=localhost
auth_username=postmaster
auth_password=postmaster
hostname=localhost

php.ini
sendmail_from = postmaster@localhost
smtp_port = 25

Mercury Users
Localhost/Admin and Root

Mercury SMTP Server
Announce myself 127.0.0.1
Listen on port 23
IP interface to use 127.0.0.1
connection control is set as 127.0.0.1 - 127.0.0.1

Mercury pop 3 server
Listen to TCP port : 110
IP Interface to use : 127.0.0.1
connection control is set as 127.0.0.1 - 127.0.0.1

MercuryE SMTP client
Identify Myself as : 127.0.0.1
Port 25 (Normal - no SSL encryption)
Name server : 127.0.0.1

Mercury D pop3 - User
POP3 Host : 127.0.0.1
Username : root
Password : root

Outlook express new account
name: root
Email: root@localhost.com
Incoming mail server: 127.0.0.1
Outgoing mailserver: 127.0.0.1
Logon username: root
Logon Username password: root
If I try and set up an account as postmaster@localhost.com it cant do it