Cannot Successfully Configure SMTP Settings

I'm having trouble configuring up SMTP settings in BM free. I'm trying to use my Gmail account, and I've properly entered all the Gmail SMTP settings per this page (http://email.about.com/od/accessinggmail/f/Gmail_SMTP_Settings.htm). However, when I try to send a test email, BM spins for a while, and finally returns a "Timeout Error". I couldn't see anything in the BM logs related to this error.

I've tried using other SMTP servers (road runner, for instance), and none of them worked either. For a few settings, BM returned a "server does not support secure emails" or "failure to send email" error, but no further details.

I've looked at the Firewall settings on my server, and nothing seems to be blocking emails. I've also watched HTTP traffic through Fiddler while trying to send a test email, and that didn't trap anything obvious either.

What other steps can I try? Any thoughts as to what might be wrong? Thanks for your help.

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

A lot of Internet Service Providers (even business class) will block outgoing SMTP connections. To test this, just log in to the server and SMTP out on port 25 and do a "manual SMTP" test.

http://www.port25.com/how-to-check-an-smtp-connection-with-a-manual-telnet-session-2/

Hope that helps,

Tod

Note that for Gmail, if you have 2-factor authentication (http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/2step/ ) you must generate an application specific password in order to authenticate - you can't just use your normal Gmail credentials.

Also, what version of BuildMaster? If you are using a version pre-3.2 then email over SSL would not work.

Hi Steve and Tod,

Thanks for the information. At my next available opportunity, I will be testing my server to see if my ISP blocks SMTP transmissions. I read through the How-To you referenced on that topic, and it's a bit of a stretch for my experience, so it may take me a while. However, I will report back when I have results.

Also, to Steve's question, we are using the latest version of BuildMaster, just updated prior to testing SMTP settings. To your point about two-factor authentication, I just checked my Google Account settings, and I am NOT currently using 2-factor authentication (though I probably should be). Thanks for the thought, though.

I will do some more work and report back. Thanks again for the ideas.

Matthew