sSMTP: Cannot open smtp server

Question

This is not a duplicate, I'm aware of the other question and it didn't help me.

Here's my ssmtp.conf:

[email protected]
rewriteDomain=mydomain.com
hostname=myHostnameHere
FromLineOverride=YES
[email protected]
AuthPass=myPasswordHere
AuthMethod=LOGIN
FromLineOverride=YES
mailhub=mail.mymailhost.com:465
UseSTARTTLS=YES
UseTLS=YES
TLS_CA_Dir=/usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/

I also tried telnet-ing to the server, and it worked, so the port and the host are correct (here it is redacted).

The problem is:

sSMTP[{PID}]: STARTTLS not working
sSMTP[{PID}]: Cannot open mail.mymailhost.com:465

Executed command: echo "This is a test" | mail -s "Test" [email protected]

Response: mail: cannot send message: Process exited with a non-zero status

OS: debian

Solution 1

Either

• disable TLS and / or StartTLS in your ssmtp config

or

• fix TLS and / or StartTLS on mail.mymailhost.com.

Solution 2

1. Log in with the gmail account you want to send mail as and switch on "Allow less secure apps". Here is the link https://myaccount.google.com/lesssecureapps?pli=1

2. In my /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf file I have the following. Notice UseTLSCert=YES and UseTLS=YES are commented out? I fiddled until it started working. I don't know why it works like this, but anyway this is what I did.

[email protected]
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
Hostname=localhost
[email protected]
AuthPass=xxx
FromLineOverride=YES
RewriteDomain=gmail.com
#UseTLS=YES
#UseTLSCert=YES
UseSTARTTLS=YES
TLS_CA_File=/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt

3. I then used this page to know how to use ssmtp https://tecadmin.net/send-email-smtp-server-linux-command-line-ssmtp/

Comments

[gxx]

What did you do to (try to) solve the problem?

[ForceMagic]

I tried settings UseTLS and StartTLS to no with all variations, but no luck. Your answer worked.

[ForceMagic]

Disabled both of TLS and StartTLS settings. It works! Thanks!

[gxx]

@ForceMagic Think about if you really would like to go this route because of the security implications. Maybe it would be wise to investigate the second point I've raised. Good luck!

[ForceMagic]

Oh, I don't own the mail host. So I can't really do anything about it. But anyways, thanks again :)

[ForceMagic]

also one more question... I want to know how to setup [email protected] as the email sender instead of [email protected]

[gxx]

@ForceMagic No idea, sorry. I'm quite sure this is described in the docs. If you're unable to solve this on your own, post a new question.