what is the cause of SMTP.MAIL: the Operation has timed out?

Question

I am creating an intranet web-based application that will send notifications to its users depending on the Admin's choice.

I developed the Mailing page correctly and it work fine with 15 or 20 users. Now, I have more than 200 users, so when I run this page I got the following error and I don't know why:

Exception Details: System.Net.Mail.SmtpException: The operation has timed out.

My Code-Behind (C#):

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        SendEmailTOAllUser();
    }


    protected void SendEmail(string toAddresses, string fromAddress, string MailSubject, string MessageBody, bool isBodyHtml)
    {
        SmtpClient sc = new SmtpClient("MAIL.companyDomainName.com");
        try
        {
            MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();
            msg.From = new MailAddress("[email protected]", "PMOD Safety Services Portal (PSSP)");

            // In case the mail system doesn't like no to recipients. This could be removed
            //msg.To.Add("[email protected]");

            msg.Bcc.Add(toAddresses);
            msg.Subject = MailSubject;
            msg.Body = MessageBody;
            msg.IsBodyHtml = isBodyHtml;
            //Response.Write(msg);
            sc.Send(msg);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw ex;
        }

    }

    protected void SendEmailTOAllUser()

    {
        string connString = "Data Source=localhost\\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=psspEmail;Integrated Security=True";

        using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connString))
        {
            var sbEmailAddresses = new System.Text.StringBuilder(1000);
            string quizid = "";

            // Open DB connection.
            conn.Open();

            string cmdText = "SELECT MIN (QuizID) As mQuizID FROM dbo.QUIZ WHERE IsSent <> 1";
            using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(cmdText, conn))
            {
                SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                if (reader != null)
                {
                    while (reader.Read())
                    {
                        // There is only 1 column, so just retrieve it using the ordinal position
                        quizid = reader["mQuizID"].ToString();

                    }
                }
                reader.Close();
            }

            string cmdText2 = "SELECT Username FROM dbo.employee";
            using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(cmdText2, conn))
            {
                SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                if (reader != null)
                {
                    while (reader.Read())
                    {
                        var sName = reader.GetString(0);
                        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(sName))
                        {
                            if (sbEmailAddresses.Length != 0)
                            {
                                sbEmailAddresses.Append(",");
                            }
                            // Just use the ordinal position for the user name since there is only 1 column
                            sbEmailAddresses.Append(sName).Append("@companyDomainName.com");
                        }
                    }
                }
                reader.Close();
            }

            string cmdText3 = "UPDATE dbo.Quiz SET IsSent = 1 WHERE QuizId = @QuizID";
            using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(cmdText3, conn))
            {
                // Add the parameter to the command
                var oParameter = cmd.Parameters.Add("@QuizID", SqlDbType.Int);
                // Get a local copy of the email addresses
                var sEMailAddresses = sbEmailAddresses.ToString();


                    string link = "<a href='http://pmv/pssp/StartQuiz.aspx?testid=" + quizid + "'> Click here to participate </a>";
                    string body = @"Good day, <br /><br />
                                <b> Please participate in the new short safety quiz </b>"
                                        + link +
                                        @"<br /><br />
                            Also, give yourself a chance to gain more safety culture by reading the PMOD Newsletter.
                            <br /> <br /><br /> <br />
                            This email was generated using the <a href='http://pmv/pssp/Default.aspx'>PMOD Safety Services Portal (PSSP) </a>. 
                            Please do not reply to this email.
                            ";

                    SendEmail(sEMailAddresses, "", "Notification of New Weekly Safety Quiz", body, true);

                    // Update the parameter for the current quiz
                    oParameter.Value = quizid;
                    // And execute the command
                    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
            }
            conn.Close();
        }
    }

Any help please?

Solution 1

add sc.timeout=600000(10min) in send email method.

if email send requires more time to complete the it allows you

Solution 2

1. make sure your SMTP server is online, as my test "telnet MAIL.Aramco.com 25", it displays the server is unavailable.
2. As your code, you are using SMTP server but no authentication, does it support anonymously access?

Solution 3

If it is a concurrency issue as it seems maybe using SendAsync can help to solve your probelm as it discussed in this post

Here's an example in MSDN that might help. You should replace the Send method with SendAsync as this code shows.