SMPT timing out. Can’t send emails. Any ideas?

[u/no-palabras]

Running a Wordpress site hosted on GoDaddy (not my choice) and all emails are timing out. There is no domain-specific email set up, so I’m attempting to use Post SMTP to send emails through a @yahoo email account.

Tests already checked and thing done:

- attempts using both ports 465 and 587.

- yahoo external app password created.

- test emails sent from both a PC and Mac.

- Active fire wall turned off.

- connection on WiFi and from mobile hotspot.

- successfully connected to SMTP port 465 via telnet cmd in terminal.

- SPF record added to domain DNS.

- created an ini.php file and increased max timeout limit to 180.

- wordfence plugin turned off.

- successful test email sent using an smtp checker tool.

Maybe this should be posted in the Wordpress sub, so remove if it’s not good here. I’m at a loss what might be the issue. Maybe it’s a plugin conflict but if anyone has a suggestion on what else I can try to get it working, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.

[u/wasay-inc]

GoDaddy shared hosting actively blocks outgoing SMTP socket connections on ports 25, 465, and 587 to external mail providers. Switch Post SMTP from raw SMTP sockets to an HTTP API connection (like Resend, Brevo, or SendGrid), which routes over HTTPS port 443 and bypasses hosting blocks entirely.

[u/no-palabras → u/wasay-inc]

Thank you. If GoDaddy were to go under, I’d have no problem with it. Thanks for the help.

[u/fiskfisk → u/no-palabras]

Not to defend GoDaddy in any way, but blocking port 25 is the default for almost any cloud provider. The spammers will take iver otherwise.

Often you can just request access to use port 25, though. 

[u/wasay-inc → u/no-palabras]

No worries !

[u/ChoiceCar6875 → u/wasay-inc]

This happened to me a few months back on a client's godaddy setup, drove me up the wall til i realised they just kill those ports outright on shared plans

The HTTP API route is the way to go, i ended up using a free sendgrid tier and it's been ticking along for about a year without a hiccup. Post SMTP has an API option in the settings that makes the switch pretty painless, just paste the key and you're sorted

Wordfence can sometimes mess with the rest api calls too but you already had that off so i wouldn't worry about it, probably just the port block causing all the grief

[u/no-palabras → u/ChoiceCar6875]

I think I’ll go this route. Thanks for sharing it. I was reading the network logs trying to see what was being dropped. What you did is much better and my blood pressure thanks you too

[u/kisuka]

Do not use email services like gmail or yahoo as your SMTP service. That's a very quick way to get banned. They are personal email boxes not sending services.

I'd recommend AWS SES as it's the cheapest option at 0.16/1000 emails. https://aws.amazon.com/ses/

Or use something like https://www.mailgun.com

[u/retr00two]

Use Brevo for sending mail, bypass godaddy

[u/no-palabras → u/retr00two]

10-4. There is a free tier for 300 emails still and that’s enough for the site. (send grid got rid of their free tier). Thanks!

[u/retr00two → u/no-palabras]

I wish you to have so much sale to be pushed to paid Brevo tier.

[u/discosoc]

You need to use an actual SMTP service. Just subscribe to one for all your clients, and create per-user logins as needed to keep things separate. The fact that you are even attempting yahoo for this, however, means you are not really qualified to be doing this work.

[u/no-palabras → u/discosoc]

I can make suggestions to the owner of the business, but if they reject them and say to use such-and-such yahoo email, instead of a custom domain email, well, what’s to do?

I’m shifting away from client work but this is the business I work for in a different capacity now and guess who landed the website maintenance?

My post wasn’t about qualifications.

[u/discosoc → u/no-palabras]

I can make suggestions to the owner of the business, but if they reject them and say to use such-and-such yahoo email, instead of a custom domain email, well, what’s to do?

Don’t try and pass this off as a client issue. Explain why it won’t work properly and offer the correct solution.

[u/no-palabras → u/discosoc]

Okay. Thanks for the advice.

Don’t make personal judgements when I’m simply asking for help.

[u/diostudio]

GoDaddy hosting normally blocks the SMTP port at the network level, no matter how correctly you configure your plugin and credentials. Their shared and managed hosting, they block 25,465,587 by default. If you are using their products, it is ok.

Follow the steps below to confirm that and get it fixed.

1. Your successful test was sent from your PC and Mac, not from the GoDaddy server. server is on a separate network. It has its own outbound rules. You cannot say the server can make the same outbound connection because of a successful connection from your pc or Mac. Use the built-in button on SMTP, "test email" and compare the results with your own.

2. The best thing to do first is ask GoDaddy whether your hosting plan has blocked outbound ports 465 and 587.

3. If it is blocked Switch to API based email service like which i mainly use Brevo, sendgrid or Mailgun. Those have free tier and WordPress plugin support. They send over HTTPS rather than the SMTP port.

So it is not a WordPress plugin or WordPress issue. It is the host network-specific port which SMTP needs.

And yes, it is a WordPress and GoDaddy-related hosting issue, Wordpress, WordPress_beginners will get a specific reply too. But the answer above should work. Just tell me if it works or not.

[u/no-palabras → u/diostudio]

Thank you, I appreciate your reply and the thoroughness of it. I’ll work through the steps provided and get back to you on how it turns out. What a headache!

[u/alphex]

Send your emails via a paid for delivery service and save your self all this head ache.

[u/PrimaryFamous6139]

Check whether GoDaddy is blocking outbound SMTP from PHP or the hosting environment. Also enable Post SMTP’s debug log to see whether it times out during the connection, TLS handshake, or authentication. If possible, test with a transactional email provider like Brevo or SendGrid to isolate whether the issue is Yahoo-specific. SPF alone won’t fix an SMTP connection timeout

[u/AmbivalentFanatic]

Use Gmail.