Thread

I am using SMTP because my host has locked down Sendmail (seems they were hacked a few months ago and have decided to make it difficult for urchins trying anonymous spamming which I am fine with). I have tested my serveraddress/user/password by adding them to outlook. I can send e-mail that way with pop3 or IMAP no problem. When I try and use SMTP in EE and use the same credentials in debugg mode I get:

Debugging Message
Unable to open SMTP socket. Error Number: 111 Error Msg: Connection refused
Unable to send data: AUTH LOGIN
Failed to send AUTH LOGIN command. Error:
Unable to send data: MAIL FROM:

from: 

Failed to Send Command. Error:
Unable to send data: RCPT TO:

to: 

Failed to Send Command. Error:
Unable to send data: DATA

data: 

Failed to Send Command. Error:
Unable to send data: User-Agent: ExpressionEngine 1.6.6 Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:11:54 -0600 From: "Test E-mail Sender" Return-Path: To: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Subject: =?utf-8?Q?Test_e-mail_send_via_ExpressionEngine?= Reply-To: "webmaster@mondaymorningpitcrew.com" X-Sender: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) X-Mailer: ExpressionEngine 1.6.6 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Message-ID: <499c415a517e4@mondaymorningpitcrew.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Test e-mail send via ExpressionEngine Test e-mail send via ExpressionEngineTest e-mail send via ExpressionEngineTest e-mail send via ExpressionEngine Test e-mail send via ExpressionEngineTest e-mail send via ExpressionEngineTest e-mail send via ExpressionEngine Test e-mail send via ExpressionEngineTest e-mail send via ExpressionEngine Test e-mail send via ExpressionEngine Test e-mail send via ExpressionEngine
Unable to send data: .

Failed to send SMTP email. Error:
Unable to send email using SMTP

Am I looking at a authentication error or a problem with communicating with SMTP server?

I tried using my gmail SMTP configuration and I am getting the same result. Attached is a cropped screen shot of my settings in CP.

“Connection refused” definitely points to an issue with the mail server, either authentication or otherwise. Please talk to your host about it. GMail might be a bit of a special case, if I remember correctly they only accept SSL-based connection, and EE doesn’t support those yet.

Also, what version and build of EE are you on?

Thanks for tackling my question Ingmar. I see posts getting double digit responses hours after my post has gone passed over. I guess e-mail troubleshooting isn’t a very fun topic to help with.

My host’s CPANEL doens’t actually offer smtp. I checked with them. I’m now realizing that pop3/imap protocols are about all they offer and the control panel software has that feature turned off basically to prevent spamming scripts. The application their cpanel uses is x-mailer.

I am running EE v1.6.6

Without being able to send e-mail without authentication…what options are there for me? If not now, is there a plan with v2.0 to offer more than just sendmail,php, and SMTP?

My host’s CPANEL doens’t actually offer smtp. I checked with them. I’m now realizing that pop3/imap protocols are about all they offer ...

Your realize these are protocols for receiving mail, whereas we want to send mail? So, my suggestion would be to use phpmail(), and ask your host how to send mail via a PHP script.

Without being able to send e-mail without authentication…what options are there for me?

Authentication is not the issue here, but Gmail’s servers simply refuse unencrypted connection attempts.

If not now, is there a plan with v2.0 to offer more than just sendmail,php, and SMTP?

Uh, what else is there? Of course sendmail can be an alias to some other MTA (say, Postfix) but that wouldn’t matter to EE; it’s basically a local SMTP server.

My host is not going to help me write a php script to send mail. I have another question. Is this part of the debugging that is now above the error page telling me the e-mail was not sent?

Warning: fsockopen() [function.fsockopen]: unable to connect to smtp2go.com:25 (Connection refused) in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1405

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1550

Warning: fgets(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1571

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1550

Warning: fgets(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1571

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1550

Warning: fgets(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1571

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1550

Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1550

Warning: fgets(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/mondaymo/public_html/metsys/core/core.email.php on line 1571

I found a port that was open. It was not authentication to begin with. I telneted until I found a port open. Part of my HOST’s effort to shut down spamming they have closed port 25 all together.

I paid for a SMTP service for a year. It was less than $30. You might want to have someone in my situation next time try seeing if Port 25 is closed.

Debugging Message
220 smtp2go.com ESMTP Exim 4.63 Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:22:49 +0000

hello: 250-smtp2go.com Hello <a href="http://www.mondaymorningpitcrew.com">http://www.mondaymorningpitcrew.com</a> [66.135.39.110]
250-SIZE 28740000
250-PIPELINING
250-AUTH CRAM-MD5 PLAIN LOGIN NTLM 
250-AUTH=CRAM-MD5 NTLM LOGIN PLAIN
250-STARTTLS
250 HELP

from: 250 OK

to: 250 Accepted

data: 354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by itself

250 OK id=1LZswU-00027J-9C

quit: 221 smtp2go.com closing connection

Your message has been successfully sent using smtp

Thanks for the suggestion, but I did tell you it was most likely “an issue with the mail server”. If your host blocks access to port 25, the standard SMTP port, surely they would have told you so? Looks like they are making things more complicated than they would have to be, all things considered.

Either way, does this wrap it up for you?

Yes, I resolved my problem.

EDITED:I removed my rude comments here

Andy, I am sorry you feel that way. I certainly didn’t mean to be smug, but as Tech Support we obviously don’t know about peculiarities of your setup. This is why we always recommend to contact your host in cases where everything points to a server issue (“Connection refused”). My apologies if you consider that “vague help”; I am glad you were able to get to the bottom of this, of course.

Hi, Andy!

First, I’d like to apologize that you’ve run into this difficulty with your particular environment.  It is frustrating for everyone involved - you, us, and your host - when something like this occurs.

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer server setup help - we’re ExpressionEngine experts, not server administration experts.  We are happy to work with you to identify who the correct party is to correct an issue, but once we do that, it really does need to go to that expert to fix it.  In this case, it was your web host. 

What it comes down to is that we’re all (you, the TSS) sitting behind remote computers and without the knowledge about the server environment that your host has.  They’re the expert on their server setup - we no more expect them to help you troubleshoot ExpressionEngine than they expect us to troubleshoot their server.

In this case, Ingmar was able to help you identify from where the fix had to come - from there, he asked you to contact your host, and that is definitely the most expedient way to get this up and running.

I am sorry that you felt this was bad support, but we are really doing the best we can to get you to the correct source to get everything working with as much speed as possible.

Thank you again for your feedback and working with us on this.  I hope you do manage to get this up and running so that you can carry on with your project.

Hi, Andy!  No worries, they were not rude - just frustration, one that we all felt in this situation.  When things don’t work the way we want - and the way they rightly should work, it is frustrating for everyone.

Were you able to talk to your host and get them to open up port 25?  Keep us updated, I’d love to see this resolved in a way that works for you!