diff --git a/inc/Mailer.class.php b/inc/Mailer.class.php
index eb44583b9..dd6cbd3eb 100644
--- a/inc/Mailer.class.php
+++ b/inc/Mailer.class.php
@@ -696,6 +696,7 @@ class Mailer {
      * @return bool true if the mail was successfully passed to the MTA
      */
     public function send() {
+        global $lang;
         $success = false;
 
         // prepare hook data
@@ -754,6 +755,14 @@ class Mailer {
                 $headers .= MAILHEADER_EOL.trim($data['headers']);
             }
 
+            if(!function_exists('mail')){
+                $emsg = $lang['email_fail'] . $subject;
+                error_log($emsg);
+                msg(hsc($emsg), -1, __LINE__, __FILE__, MSG_MANAGERS_ONLY);
+                $evt->advise_after();
+                return false;
+            }
+
             // send the thing
             if($this->sendparam === null) {
                 $success = @mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);
diff --git a/inc/compatibility.php b/inc/compatibility.php
index cb865a2d7..445f2456b 100644
--- a/inc/compatibility.php
+++ b/inc/compatibility.php
@@ -79,4 +79,5 @@ if(!function_exists('gztell') && function_exists('gztell64')) {
     function gztell($zp) {
         return gztell64($zp);
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
diff --git a/inc/lang/en/lang.php b/inc/lang/en/lang.php
index 4054269a8..eb3ad1638 100644
--- a/inc/lang/en/lang.php
+++ b/inc/lang/en/lang.php
@@ -319,6 +319,9 @@ $lang['i_modified']            = 'For security reasons this script will only wor
                                   You should either re-extract the files from the downloaded package or consult the complete
                                   <a href="http://dokuwiki.org/install">Dokuwiki installation instructions</a>';
 $lang['i_funcna']              = 'PHP function <code>%s</code> is not available. Maybe your hosting provider disabled it for some reason?';
+$lang['i_disabled']            =  'It has been disabled by your provider.';
+$lang['i_funcnmail']           = '<b>Note:</b> The PHP mail function is not available. %s' .
+                                 ' If it remains unavailable, you may install the <a href="http://dokuwiki.org/plugins/smtp">smtp plugin</a>.';
 $lang['i_phpver']              = 'Your PHP version <code>%s</code> is lower than the needed <code>%s</code>. You need to upgrade your PHP install.';
 $lang['i_mbfuncoverload']      = 'mbstring.func_overload must be disabled in php.ini to run DokuWiki.';
 $lang['i_urandom']             = 'DokuWiki cannot create cryptographically secure numbers for cookies. You may want to check your open_basedir settings in php.ini for proper <code>/dev/urandom</code> access.';
@@ -378,6 +381,7 @@ $lang['media_update']          = 'Upload new version';
 $lang['media_restore']         = 'Restore this version';
 $lang['media_acl_warning']     = 'This list might not be complete due to ACL restrictions and hidden pages.';
 
+$lang['email_fail']            = 'PHP mail() missing or disabled. The following email was not sent: ';
 $lang['currentns']             = 'Current namespace';
 $lang['searchresult']          = 'Search Result';
 $lang['plainhtml']             = 'Plain HTML';
diff --git a/install.php b/install.php
index 253cd3550..3b05267e7 100644
--- a/install.php
+++ b/install.php
@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ function check_functions(){
 
     $funcs = explode(' ','addslashes call_user_func chmod copy fgets '.
                          'file file_exists fseek flush filesize ftell fopen '.
-                         'glob header ignore_user_abort ini_get mail mkdir '.
+                         'glob header ignore_user_abort ini_get mkdir '.
                          'ob_start opendir parse_ini_file readfile realpath '.
                          'rename rmdir serialize session_start unlink usleep '.
                          'preg_replace file_get_contents htmlspecialchars_decode '.
@@ -592,6 +592,16 @@ function check_functions(){
         $funcs[] = 'utf8_decode';
     }
 
+    if(!function_exists('mail')){
+        if(strpos(ini_get('disable_functions'),'mail') !== false) {
+            $disabled = $lang['i_disabled'];
+        }
+        else {
+            $disabled = "";
+        }
+        $error[] = sprintf($lang['i_funcnmail'],$disabled);
+    }
+
     foreach($funcs as $func){
         if(!function_exists($func)){
             $error[] = sprintf($lang['i_funcna'],$func);