Fake Sendmail on Windows won't connect to SMTP server

Question

I'm trying to set up fake sendmail (sendmail.exe) on Windows 2008 Server so PHP (and ultimately Joomla) can send messages using my provider's SMTP server. However I keep getting the following error when using XAMPP's Simple Email Form:

Socket Error # 10061<EOL>Connection refused.

Which seems strange since I can send mail from this machine just fine using Thunderbird and the same SMTP configuration. Here are the relevant entries from sendmail.ini:

smtp_server=smtp.1und1.de
smtp_port=587
smtp_ssl=auto
auth_username=<email>
auth_password=<password>

Trying to force SSL or TLS has no effect.

sendmail's debug.log:

14.03.17 13:37:17 ** --- MESSAGE BEGIN ---
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** To: <recipient email>
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** Subject: Test
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** MIME-Version: 1.0
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** To: <recipient email>
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** From: <sender email>
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** 
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** test test
14.03.17 13:37:17 ** --- MESSAGE END ---
14.03.17 13:37:18 ** Connecting to smtp.1und1.de:587
14.03.17 13:37:18 ** Disconnected.
14.03.17 13:37:18 ** Disconnected.
14.03.17 13:37:18 ** Disconnected.
14.03.17 13:37:18 ** Socket Error # 10061<EOL>Connection refused.

Any help is appreciated.

Connecting To smtp.1und1.de...Could not open connection to the host, on port 587 : Connect failed — Daniel Wagner, Mar 17 '14 at 13:13
Thank you for answering. That's my email provider's server so I have no control over it. And Thunderbird can talk to it just fine using that port. Could it be a problem with the firewall on my side? — Daniel Wagner, Mar 17 '14 at 13:43
are u sure smtp port is 587 ? try also 25 . it's default port. — Harikrishnan, Mar 17 '14 at 14:33
Yes, 587 is what works in Thunderbird. I've tried 25, but no luck. — Daniel Wagner, Mar 17 '14 at 17:45
That's strange...You can only connect to smtp if and only if telnet connection is successful. — Harikrishnan, Mar 18 '14 at 02:15

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

You can alternatively use gmail smtp server or can use the local mercury server.

If you want to use gmail server, you can find the instructions on the answer to the following question:

How to configure XAMPP to send mail from localhost?

And in case if you want to use the mercury server which comes with xampp, you can try the following:

http://system66.blogspot.in/2010/01/how-to-send-mail-from-localhost-with.html

Hope it helps.

Fake Sendmail on Windows won't connect to SMTP server

1 Answers1