SMTP error with PHPMailer

Question

I am getting "SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host." error while trying to send mails using GMAIL SMTP and PHPMailer..

The code is working perfectly in local environment but getting error in live (bluehost) server.. Please help

Answer 1

Bluehost wont allow gmail SMTP connections.

Quoting article:

According to bluehost, you cannot send emails through SMTP connections from web applications hosted on bluehost. They only allow sending through their own SMTP servers.

The work around is that I setup a email account in Bluehost the same as the email I use in Google Apps. I then modified the code in Magento to send out using bluehost’s SMTP servers:

For example:

Outgoing Mail Server: (SSL) boxnumber.bluehost.com (server requires authentication) Supported Incoming Mail Protocols:

* POP3: port 110
* POP3S (SSL/TLS): port 995
* IMAP: port 143
* IMAPS (SSL/TLS): port 993

Supported Outgoing Mail Protocols:

* SMTP: port 26
* SMTPS (SSL/TLS): port 465

And it works, it sends the email out to the customers with the right email address sent from bluehost’s local SMTP servers, so when customers reply to the email address it will arrive in my google apps mail box.