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Hello
I spent an hour yesterday on the phone with Google trying to sort this problem. They tried allsorts of setting changes and checked everything that was set up on the site backend and couldn't come up with an answer.
When we were sending test emails from the website the error message below kept coming up:
fsockopen(): unable to connect to ssl://smtp.gmail.com:465 (Network is unreachable) in SMTP.php on line 125
Google say it seems like a PHP setting on the website somewhere but we looked in the Backlight settings and couldn't find a likely candidate.
Any help would be appreciated.
Neville
Neville
Email: info@piktour.uk Website: www.piktour.uk
Piktour.....Cornish for Picture.....By a Photographer in Cornwall
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Hi Neville, web hosts don't usually let you send email through SMTP. That requires a direct connection from your server to the mail server. In your case it's been blocked by your host. You may have some luck in getting them to open the access (port 465 to smtp.gmail.com) but even then, Google, as your mail host, may not allow that method.
The fix for the second part is to enable 'less secure apps' to send email. This should be found somewhere in your mail settings, if it is available. Enabling 'less secure apps' sounds dangerous, but the app that you're enabling is your own website. You're essentially telling Google that you trust yourself.
The option for 'mail' should be much less problematic. The main issue there is that incoming mail servers don't trust that you're sending from the site that matches your email address. On Bluehost, and presumably other hosts, that can be fixed by creating an email account in your host's control panel that matches the sender email you're using. With that information, the host then sets the correct fields when sending email on your behalf, and email gets through to the recipient's inbox instead of being marked as spam.
This approach requires you to have an email address on the domain you have hosting for.
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Hello Ben
Thanks for your response.
1) When I was speaking to Google we looked at Port 465 to smtp.gmail.com, they even got me to try a different port setting, they did not mention anything about it not being allowed.
2) We also applied the setting to enable 'Less Secure Apps' to no avail.
3) Yes we have domain email address info@piktour.uk
I have asked my webhosts for help, their response is here:
Any contact forms should use SMTP Authentication. For WordPress, plugin like WP Mail SMTP is best: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/ - you can configure it to send out email using SMTP.
If the form is connecting to a remote mail server (like Gmail) we may also need to open up some ports on the firewall. I've added the piktour account to the smtp_allow list on the firewall.
I have downloaded the plug-in and loaded it on our Wordpress blog but I don't think it'll be of any use in Backlight. And I can't actually finish the setup in the blog as it's asking me to add stuff to my Google admin that I have no clue where it's located. I am mainly interested in sorting the Backlight email first anyway, the blog can be looked at later.
Does any of this throw any more light on the problem?
Neville
Neville
Email: info@piktour.uk Website: www.piktour.uk
Piktour.....Cornish for Picture.....By a Photographer in Cornwall
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Hi Neville, that’s helpful. The error you’re seeing is at your host m, not Google. Since they’ve said they can open specific ports I would ask your host to open port 465 for smtp.google.com
It’s surprising that they are recommending smtp over mail. Usually you’d be able to use your info@ address with the ‘mail’ option.
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