Thread:Project:Support desk/Email Confirmation Failure

As a sysop, the software is supposed to email me watched page notices, without going through the email cycle, according to:

E-Mail addresses of bureaucrats, developers or sysops become confirmed as they are entered, i.e. without the confirmation cycle. This behaviour can be configured (enabled as described or disabled) with switch $wgEmailConfirmationRequiredForAll. (Posted at: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Email_notification#EConfirm:_E-mail_address_confirmation)

That switch does not exist in my LocalSettings.php file, so I assume my email should have been confirmed when it was entered.

But I am asked to click to confirm, and when I do, I get this error message: "Could not send confirmation mail. Check address for invalid characters. Mailer returned: mailer error"

The email address I have entered matches the address in the LocalSettings.php file.

MediaWiki 1.17wmf1 (r96617) PHP 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.12wm1 (apache2handler) MySQL 5.1.47-facebook-r3550-log

I installed the program March 9. That is how long I have been without email confirmation. A confirmation code was supposed to have been sent to me but I have never received it.

Thank you for your help!