Entering in your SMTP email settings for mail delivery is very quick and easy. However, if you are having mail delivery problems that can be frustrating! So lets take a look at a few scenarios with possible resolutions for you. Before entering in your SMTP email settings, it’s crucial to make sure you have the proper settings. Your email/server provider can tell you exactly what your email settings should be including which port should be used, the security type, TLS, SSL), server setting, user/pass, etc.
Google Apps/Gmail:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/176600?hl=en
GoDaddy/cPanel:
https://www.godaddy.com/help/configuring-mail-clients-with-cpanel-email-8861/
Hotmail/Live:
http://www.serversmtp.com/en/smtp-hotmail
Again, these are just some sample settings for some of the more popular email services. Most people using GoDaddy just use PHP Mailer() instead of SMTP and report success. This might be an option to try for you as well. Whether you’re using your own SMTP email account with your hosting account or it’s Hotmail, Outlook, Gmail or something else.. you’ll always find the settings you should be using. You’ll also note in several cases, you’ll find alternate settings too. For instance, you might see in their instructions to use port 25 but then they will also say something like “port 80 might work also”. So in this case, you’ll need to experiment with different settings.
Tip: Always make sure to check your spam/junk folder when looking for the test email.
If you are confident your SMTP settings are correct and you’re still getting an error message, you’ll need a technical support person and/or server admin from your hosting provider to troubleshoot the outbound connection. They will likely find it to be a firewall, DNS issue or blocked port. It could be a number of other different things as well.
We use the standard PHPMailer class that most products use these days. They have a troubleshooting guide here:
https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting