How to fix ConnectionRefusedError: [WinError 10061] the target machine actively refused it? (Django e.mails)

Question

I am using Django to send e-mails. I am getting a common network error apparently, but not any of the answers I've read solved. I have a problem with the socket I believe,

When I send the e-mail I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\site- 
packages\django\core\mail\message.py", line 291, in send
return self.get_connection(fail_silently).send_messages([self])
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\site- 
packages\django\core\mail\backends\smtp.py", line 103, in send_messages
new_conn_created = self.open()
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\site- 
packages\django\core\mail\backends\smtp.py", line 63, in open
self.connection = self.connection_class(self.host, self.port, 
**connection_params)
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\smtplib.py", line 251, 
in __init__
(code, msg) = self.connect(host, port)
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\smtplib.py", line 336, 
in connect
self.sock = self._get_socket(host, port, self.timeout)
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\smtplib.py", line 307, 
in _get_socket
self.source_address)
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\socket.py", line 727, 
in create_connection
raise err
File "C:\Users\Jaime\Miniconda3\envs\mydjango\lib\socket.py", line 716, 
in create_connection
sock.connect(sa)
ConnectionRefusedError: [WinError 10061] No connection could be made 
because 
the target machine actively refused it

Here is what I've tried:

1. import socket socket.getaddrinfo('hotmail-com.olc.protection.outlook.com', 80) socket.getaddrinfo('smtp.hotmail.com', 8000) socket.getaddrinfo('smtp.hotmail.com', 587)

2. Turn off Firewall / Antivirus
3. Run the code in python shell and in Django app
4. I've got the smtp server out of a nslookup MX query

I am running this test code in the python shell:

from django.conf import settings
from django.core.mail import EmailMessage
settings.configure()

from django.core.mail import send_mail

import socket
socket.getaddrinfo('hotmail-com.olc.protection.outlook.com', 80)

EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'
EMAIL_USE_TLS = True
EMAIL_HOST = 'hotmail-com.olc.protection.outlook.com'
EMAIL_HOST_USER = '*******@hotmail.com'
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = '******'
EMAIL_PORT = 587

mail_subject = 'Activate your blog account.'
            

to_email = "******@hotmail"
email = EmailMessage(
    mail_subject, "hello", to=[to_email]
)
email.send()

Expected Result:

For now I want to send e-mails from localhost Django app. In the future I will upload the code to pythonanywhere.com server.

Answer 1

Here is my Django code to send e-mails:

1. I was missing configurations in settings.py

   settings.py:

   DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'admin@********.com'
   SERVER_EMAIL = 'admin@********.com'
   EMAIL_BACKEND = 'django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend'
   EMAIL_USE_TLS = True
   EMAIL_HOST = 'mail.********.com'
   EMAIL_HOST_USER = 'admin@********.com'
   EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = '*******'
   EMAIL_PORT = 587
   

2. Windows configurations

   It had nothing to do with:

   • Firewall
   • Antivirus

3. I was not sure about the name of the SMTP server

   • Make sure you have the correct credentials in settings.py
   • My hotmail didn't work in the end. I had to use an e.mail provided by host services.

4. Python shell is different than Django shell I was testing the code in python shell. The correct thing to do was to call:

   python manage.py shell
   

   instead of just python

Sending the e.mail (After you have your settings.py file configured):

you can either open the Django shell and copy the code or write in the Django views.py file a specific view

from django.core.mail import EmailMessage

mail_subject = 'Active a sua conta.'
message = "message"
to_email = "jaimedcsilva@hotmail.com"

email = EmailMessage(
    mail_subject, message,to=[to_email]
)
email.send()

Worth mentioning:

• Does not work with port 465
• E.mail sometimes goes to junk folder

Answer 2

The EMAIL_* values need to be in your settings module, not in your script. Without those values, the EmailBackend class that handles sending the message defaults to trying to connect to localhost:25. Since you're not running an SMTP server on your local system, it's refusing the connection.

You don't need the EMAIL_BACKEND value because it's the default, but move the other EMAIL_* values into your settings module.