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SMTP Mailer Plugin For WordPress

SMTP Mailer is the easiest SMTP plugin for WordPress. It allows you to configure an SMTP server to send email from your website. SMTP Mailer enhances the default WordPress mail (“wp_mail”) function by letting you connect to a remote SMPT server to send an email instead of doing it from your web server. This reduces heavy load from your server and increases email deliverability.

SMTP Mailer Info

Plugin Name: SMTP Mailer
Version: 1.0.5
File Format: application/zip
Requires: WordPress 4.9
Rating: 4.7 based on 29 votes
Price: 0 USD

Requirements

  1. A self-hosted WordPress site running on a WordPress Optimized Environment.
  2. One of port 587, 465 or 25 needs to be open. If they are all blocked you may not be able to send an email via SMTP. In that case, they should advise which port you can use to connect to the remote SMTP server.
  3. Your Web host needs to allow communication with an external SMTP server. If that’s not possible they should be able to provide information on their own SMTP server.

SMTP Mailer Plugin Demo

SMTP Mailer Installation

You can install the SMTP plugin like any other WordPress plugin.

Option 1 (Quick & Easy install)

  1. Go to Plugins->Add New from your WordPress admin dashboard
  2. Search for SMTP Mailer
  3. Click Install once you have found it

Option 2 (Manual install)

  1. Download the zip version of the plugin
  2. Go to Plugins->Add New
  3. Click Upload Plugin
  4. Select the zip file on your computer
  5. Install it

Option 3 (FTP install)

  1. Download the zip version of the plugin
  2. Extract it on your computer
  3. Connect to your site via FTP
  4. Browse to “/wp-content/uploads/plugins/” directory
  5. Upload the folder that contains the main plugin files

SMTP Mailer Settings

You will need to configure your SMTP server related information in order to send email from your website. In order to access the settings menu go to “Settings->SMTP Mailer” from your admin dashboard.

SMTP Mailer WordPress plugin menu

The settings menu comes with three separate tabs – General Settings, Test Email & Server Info.

General Settings

screenshot of SMTP Mailer plugin settings

SMTP Host

Your outgoing mail server which will be used for sending email (e.g. smtp.gmail.com).

SMTP Authentication

Enable/Disable SMTP authentication when sending an email (Supported values: True/False).

SMTP Username

The username to connect to your SMTP server. You will need to provide a username if you enable “SMTP Authentication”.

SMTP Password

The password to connect to your SMTP server. You will need to provide a password if you enable “SMTP Authentication”.

Type of Encryption

The encryption which will be used for sending an email (Supported values: TLS/SSL/No Encryption. TLS is recommended).

SMTP Port

The port which will be used when sending an email (587/465/25). If you choose TLS the port should be set to 587. For SSL use port 465 instead.

From Email Address

The email address which is be used as the From Address if it is not supplied to the mail function.

From Name

The name which will be used as the From Name if it is not supplied to the mail function.

Test Email

“Test Email” menu allows you to test the functionality of the plugin after you have configured everything.

screenshot of test email menu in the SMTP Mailer plugin

Server Info

“Server Info” menu displays some technical information regarding your server. This is very useful for troubleshooting.

Outgoing Mail Server Configurations

Here are the settings for all the popular outgoing mail (SMTP) servers.

Gmail

  1. SMTP Host: smtp.gmail.com
  2. SMTP Authentication: True
  3. SMTP Username: Either your Gmail account username or full email address
  4. SMTP Password: Your Gmail account’s password
  5. Type of Encryption: TLS or SSL
  6. SMTP Port: 587 (if TLS) or 465 (if SSL)

Troubleshooting

1.For security reasons, Gmail now blocks any incoming connection to its SMTP server. In order to make a connection to the Gmail SMTP server and send email, you will also need to allow less secure apps in your account.

If you do not wish to turn on this feature, you might want to take a look at my Gmail SMTP plugin.

2.When you are sending an email for the first time via SMTP, you might get this SMTP Error: “Could not authenticate“.

In order to fix this issue login to your Gmail account first. You should see a security warning from Gmail upon login – “Your account has been hacked” or “Somebody stole your password”. As soon as you confirm that it was you who tried to login (Just click on the link that shows up in that message), the plugin should be able to connect to the Gmail SMTP server.

Yahoo

  1. SMTP Host: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
  2. SMTP Authentication: True
  3. SMTP Username: Your full Yahoo email address
  4. SMTP Password: Your Yahoo email account’s password
  5. Type of Encryption: TLS or SSL
  6. SMTP Port: 587 (if TLS) or 465 (if SSL)

Outlook

  1. SMTP Host: smtp-mail.outlook.com
  2. SMTP Authentication: True
  3. SMTP Username: Your email address
  4. SMTP Password: Your password
  5. Type of Encryption: TLS
  6. SMTP Port: 25 or 587 (if port 25 is blocked)

SendGrid

  1. SMTP Host: smtp.sendgrid.net
  2. SMTP Authentication: True
  3. SMTP Username: Your SendGrid username
  4. SMTP Password: Your SendGrid password
  5. Type of Encryption: TLS
  6. SMTP Port: 587 (if TLS) or 465 (if SSL). If you select “No Encryption” use port 25 instead.

Mandrill

  1. SMTP Host: smtp.mandrillapp.com
  2. SMTP Authentication: True
  3. SMTP Username: Your Mandrill username
  4. SMTP Password: Your Mandrill password
  5. Type of Encryption: TLS
  6. SMTP Port: 587, 25 or 2525 (if TLS or No Encryption). For SSL use port 465.

GoDaddy

  1. SMTP Host: relay-hosting.secureserver.net
  2. SMTP Authentication: False
  3. Type of Encryption: No Encryption
  4. SMTP Port: 25

Office 365

  1. SMTP Host: smtp.office365.com
  2. SMTP Authentication: True
  3. SMTP Username: Your office365 username
  4. SMTP Password: Your office365 password
  5. Type of Encryption: TLS
  6. SMTP Port: 587

If you have any questions feel free to share it in the comment section.

Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. If you follow one of those affiliate links and purchase something it will provide me with a little bit of a commission. This costs you nothing extra but helps maintain my site, free plugins, and themes. So I thank you for your support.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hello, why when i try to test mail i always get 504 Gateway Time-out

    Reply

  2. Unfortunately Ive tried both your plugins and neither worked to route through GoDaddy to Gmail. Unable to send any emails from website that is host3ed with GoDaddy if email is at gmail. SHAME ON YOU GODADDY!

    Reply

    • i have same problem now

      Reply

  3. Hello.
    I keep receiving this message using TLS at port 587:
    Warning: stream_socket_enable_crypto(): Peer certificate CN=`XXXXXXXX’ did not match expected CN=`YYYYYYYY’

    I’m using a valid certificate. Its a shared whm environment with Centos 7 + php 5.6.
    PS: Without encryption it works fine but my customer wants to use TLS

    Reply

    • @Willrich, Your SSL certificate on the server may not be configured correctly. Did you try checking this option “Disable SSL Certificate Verification”?

      Reply

      • Hello,
        Was a problem with the SMTP provider using custom configuration. Thanks for your reply. 🙂

        Reply

  4. I am not receiving emails at all when a member register, get error below, how can I fix this?
    Connection: opening to smtp.websitenamehere:587, timeout=300, options=array ()
    Connection: Failed to connect to server. Error number 2. “Error notice: stream_socket_client(): php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known
    Connection: Failed to connect to server. Error number 2. “Error notice: stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to smtp.websitenamehere:587 (php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known)
    SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known (0)
    SMTP connect() failed. github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

    Reply

    • I’m getting a similar error. I’ve contacted Godaddy a few times and they tell me it a problem with the plugin and that I have to contact the developer. Here’s the error:

      Connection: opening to relay-hosting.secureserver.net:25, timeout=300, options=array ( ‘ssl’ => array ( ‘verify_peer’ => false, ‘verify_peer_name’ => false, ‘allow_self_signed’ => true, ),)
      Connection: Failed to connect to server. Error number 2. “Error notice: stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to relay-hosting.secureserver.net:25 (Connection refused)
      SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: Connection refused (111)
      SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

      Any ideas???

      Thanks

      Reply

      • @Eman, Are you on a shared hosting?

        Reply

          • @Eman, According to GoDaddy, That’s how SMTP should be configured on their server. They may have blocked this port for some reason. Please contact them to see if you need to use a different port or settings.

      • Hello, similar error like Eman, godaddy provider, I’ve contacted Godaddy and they say everything is ok. :s

        2020-01-23 18:21:22 Connection: opening to relay-hosting.secureserver.net:25, timeout=300, options=array ()
        2020-01-23 18:21:23 Connection failed. Error #2: stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to relay-hosting.secureserver.net:25 (Connection refused) [/home/h3mphtybvlvt/public_html/wp-includes/class-smtp.php line 298]
        2020-01-23 18:21:23 SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: Connection refused (111)
        SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting

        did you know how to fix it?

        Reply

  5. I’m using the SMTP Mailer and it’s working, but I’m having trouble with the password reset emails. They don’t have any line breaks and the link to reset the password is missing. When doing a little research it may have something to do with the line break format.

    One suggestion I found was to “Replace all line feeds (“n”) by in the message body?” Is it possible to make this type setting change in SMTP Mail?

    Reply

    • @Sharon, The password reset email is generated by WordPress. I don’t think it would be a good idea to dynamically change the email body since it comes from the core.

      Reply

  6. Thanks, just trying to track down what is causing the password link not to show in emails, and I’m very confused. When I look at the complete original email in gmail for instance, the link is there in the header file, but it is not showing in the displayed email.

    Reply

  7. Hi,
    I followed instructions on https://wordpress.org/support/topic/fixed-my-problem-with-godaddy-not-e-mailing-gravity-forms/ and I got the following error.
    I saw some another user having a similar, if not the same, issue and I did not see any solutions.
    Can you please help? It’s kind of urgent.
    Thank you very much.

    Connection: opening to relay-hosting.secureserver.net:25, timeout=300, options=array ()
    Connection: opened
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “220 a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net : HOSTING RELAY : ESMTP Grid hosting relay server ready”
    SERVER -> CLIENT: 220 a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net : HOSTING RELAY : ESMTP Grid hosting relay server ready
    CLIENT -> SERVER: EHLO academyofoperativedentistry.com
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “250-a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net hello [107.180.111.21], pleased to meet you”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “250-a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net hello [107.180.111.21], pleased to meet you”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “250-HELP”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “250-a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net hello [107.180.111.21], pleased to meet you250-HELP”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “250-SIZE 30000000”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “250-a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net hello [107.180.111.21], pleased to meet you250-HELP250-SIZE 30000000”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “250-a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net hello [107.180.111.21], pleased to meet you250-HELP250-SIZE 30000000250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “250-8BITMIME”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “250-a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net hello [107.180.111.21], pleased to meet you250-HELP250-SIZE 30000000250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-8BITMIME”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “250 OK”
    SERVER -> CLIENT: 250-a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net hello [107.180.111.21], pleased to meet you250-HELP250-SIZE 30000000250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES250-8BITMIME250 OK
    CLIENT -> SERVER: STARTTLS
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “500 command unrecognized”
    SERVER -> CLIENT: 500 command unrecognized
    SMTP ERROR: STARTTLS command failed: 500 command unrecognized
    SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host.
    CLIENT -> SERVER: QUIT
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $data is “”
    SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is “221 2.0.0 a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net : HOSTING RELAY : closing connection”
    SERVER -> CLIENT: 221 2.0.0 a2nlsmtp01-04.prod.iad2.secureserver.net : HOSTING RELAY : closing connection
    Connection: closed
    SMTP Error: Could not connect to SMTP host.

    Reply

    • Dear Admin,
      I made it work by switching to NO Encryption. Thank you!!

      Reply

  8. Hey! How can I use on the form it? For exemplo:

    Reply

  9. Hey! How can I use on the form it? For exemplo: “”

    Reply

    • <form action=”what will go here?”>

      Reply

      • @Genesis, This has nothing to do with form action. When an email is sent via a plugin (by calling the “wp_mail” function), SMTP Mailer will send that email through your pre-configured SMTP server.

        Reply

  10. Hi,

    Just installed your SMTP plugin to work with Contact Form 7 as it shows in your info, but a form that used to work before (but in fact did not send the message) now gives an error message and thus the combination doesn’t seem to work. Sending a SMTP test message works fine and also Confact Form 7 says the form is ok, so now I’m stuck in the middle. Where can I look for logs, errors, etc. to resolve this?
    Many thanks in advance,
    Martin

    Reply

    • @Martin, That means there is no error on WordPress’s end and the email was sent successfully without any issue. Did you check the spam folder?

      Reply

  11. Plugin works well for me but I want to send email to many people, how can I?

    Reply

    • @Syed, This plugin can’t send an email to multiple recipients (you will need to find a different plugin for that). It only changes the way an email sent in the backend.

      Reply

      • Good to hear! Actually, I love the settings which this plugin had done e.g it has put my domain name after “mailed by:” thing in emails. But now what I want to know is that if I make this plugin available in my website, then how can I send emails in similar manner? I haven’t found such plugin yet. Please Guide. Thanks!

        Reply

  12. I have correctly filled in all the configuration parameters of the SMTP Mailer plugin and when I send a test mail I get the following error

    Invalid address: (punyEncode) SMTP_FROM

    Reply

    • @Eidy, Please provide your configuration details so I can take a look.

      Reply

  13. Hello I Can not configure SMTP settings because of below error

    “Postman is unable to run. Email delivery is being handled by WordPress (or another plugin).

    Postman needs translators! Please take a moment to translate a few sentences on-line 🙂

    New for v1.7! Send mail with the Mandrill or SendGrid APIs.”

    Please can you help me fix this Error

    Thanks.

    Reply

    • @Bhavesh, You cannot have multiple SMTP plugins activated at the same time.

      Reply

  14. I have created have setup the plugin and it works. My main problem now is, from where do i send those messages?

    The Plugin doesn’t have any room for that.

    Reply

    • @Ifeanyi, The plugin doesn’t send any email. It changes the method that is used to send an email in WordPress.

      Reply

  15. The test works great. But, when I try to send an email with the contact form, I get the message:

    Missing CSRF session token. The session that has generated this token has already been used and is not available. Please reload the page and submit a new form.

    Any ideas?

    Reply

    • I was able to turn off the CSRF message. But, the contact form (VFB Pro) still won’t work. It tells me the message was sent. However, no contact form is received.

      Reply

      • @Steve, Which SMTP provider are you using? Have you checked the spam folder?

        Reply

        • Neverr mind. I went with a different plugin. Don’t have time to play these games.

          Reply

  16. Hi, thanks for the plugin! It seems that my installation only works when I disable the SSL verification, although the certificates are correctly installed ( https://www.xolphin.com/sslcheck/futurestore.nl ). I am using PHP 7.2.11 on CentOS 6.1 and WordPress 5.2.2.
    I hope you can help.

    Best regards,.

    Paul van Asseldonk

    Reply

    • Hi, I figured it out myself, I forgot to install the root certificate for the server, silly me.

      Best regards, Paul

      Reply

  17. Is there no way to set a Reply-To address in this plugin?

    Reply

  18. Hi,

    Is There any settings to send email in Inbox not in Spam.

    Best regards,

    Keyur Patel

    Reply

  19. Hi Keyur Patel,

    Answer is : NO!

    But you can use this plugin with Gmail SMTP for fix the SPAM issue.

    Also, You can contact your host provider for rechecking the ‘SPF, DKIM’ Record’ . If you don’t have set this, then always your email goes to SPAM.

    Thanks
    Sabbir

    Reply

  20. Hi seting up a new email on a contact form and using the smtp mailer. It worked fine until we changed the email address. Any idea what might cause this?

    Sender address rejected: not owned by user admin@**************.**

    Reply

    • @Neil, Did you change the SMTP email address? Have you also updated the password for it?

      Reply

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