email - Connection refused - connect(2) Ruby on Rails Mail Setup

Question

I have set smtp settings in both config/environments/production.rb and development.rb also i have added the settings in `config/initializers/setup_mail.rb

config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => 'ipaddress' }
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
  :address              => 'smtp.gmail.com',
  :port                 => 587,
  :domain               => 'gmail.com',
  :user_name            => 'EMAIL_ADDRESS@gmail.com',
  :password             => 'pass',
  :authentication       => :plain,
  :enable_starttls_auto => true,
  :openssl_verify_mode  => 'none'
}

config/initializers/setup_mail.rb

ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = { 
  :address              => 'smtp.gmail.com',
  :port                 => 587,
  :domain               => 'gmail.com',
  :user_name            => 'EMAIL_ADDRESS@gmail.com',
  :password             => 'pass',
  :authentication       => :plain,
  :enable_starttls_auto => true,
  :openssl_verify_mode  => 'none'
} 

ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options[:host] = "ipaddress" 

i am getting the error Connection refused - connect(2)

while i have working in localhost with below configuration I haven’t get any error and also mail has been sent.

config/initializers/setup_mail.rb (localhost)

ActionMailer::Base.smtp_settings = { 
  :address              => 'smtp.gmail.com',
  :port                 => 587,
  :domain               => 'localhost',
  :user_name            => 'EMAIL_ADDRESS@gmail.com',
  :password             => 'pass',
  :authentication       => 'plain',
  :enable_starttls_auto => true
} 

ActionMailer::Base.default_url_options[:host] = "localhost:3000" 

Errors are show below while running in console,

Errno::ECONNREFUSED: Connection refused - connect(2)
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/smtp.rb:541:in `initialize'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/smtp.rb:541:in `open'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/smtp.rb:541:in `tcp_socket'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/smtp.rb:550:in `block in do_start'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/timeout.rb:69:in `timeout'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/timeout.rb:100:in `timeout'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/smtp.rb:550:in `do_start'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p545/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/smtp.rb:520:in `start'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/mail-2.4.4/lib/mail/network/delivery_methods/smtp.rb:144:in `deliver!'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/mail-2.4.4/lib/mail/message.rb:2034:in `do_delivery'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/mail-2.4.4/lib/mail/message.rb:229:in `block in deliver'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/actionmailer-3.2.9/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:415:in `block in deliver_mail'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/activesupport-3.2.9/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:123:in `block in instrument'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/activesupport-3.2.9/lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:20:in `instrument'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/activesupport-3.2.9/lib/active_support/notifications.rb:123:in `instrument'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/actionmailer-3.2.9/lib/action_mailer/base.rb:413:in `deliver_mail'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/mail-2.4.4/lib/mail/message.rb:229:in `deliver'
from (irb):28
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:47:in `start'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:8:in `start'
from /home/attuser/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p545/gems/railties-3.2.9/lib/rails/commands.rb:41:in `<top (required)>'
from script/rails:6:in `require'

controller

def sendResume
@name =params[:name]
@email_id = params[:email_id]
@mob_no = params[:ph_no]

attachments = params[:resume]
if simple_captcha_valid?

 if params[:resume]
     filename=attachments.original_filename   

    extname = File.extname(filename)[1..-1]
    mime_type = Mime::Type.lookup_by_extension(extname)
    content_type = mime_type.to_s unless mime_type.nil?


        if content_type !="application/pdf"
           flash[:error]= "Only pdf files are allowed"
           redirect_to :action=>"careers"
        else
         File.open(Rails.root.join('tmp', 'uploads', attachments.original_filename), 'w') do |file|
          re = attachments.read
          file.write(re.force_encoding("utf-8"))
          @attached_path = file.path
        end


        begin
          ResumeMailer.sendResume(@name, @email_id, @mob_no, @attached_path, attachments.original_filename).deliver
          flash[:notice] = "Your resume has been submitted successfully"
          redirect_to :action=>"careers"
        rescue Exception => e
          puts e.message

          logger.warn "error sending mail"
          flash[:error]= "Error in submitting resume"
          redirect_to :action=>"careers"
        end

     end
    else
      flash[:error]= "Please upload your resume"
      redirect_to :action=>"careers"
    end
else

  flash[:error]= "Incorrect captcha"
   redirect_to :action=>"careers"
end

end

After installing the postfix the error goes away in console mode and the mails send from console but in graphical mode (in browser) i am getting the error Connection refused - connect(2).

what is wrong,

thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I see you have tried identical settings on both servers but are having problems only on your production / non-local host environment.

This points to an issue with the network configuration of the environment itself.

In the command line on your same server as your application, try the following command

telnet smtp.gmail.com 587

You should see something like the following

telnet smtp.gmail.com 587
Trying 173.194.79.108...
Connected to gmail-smtp-msa.l.google.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mx.google.com ESMTP dd5sm276863pbc.85 - gsmtp

If you do not see this, you will most likely get a connection error. This means your machine does not have access to the gmail server. Likely problems are a) general outbound network connectivity, b) firewalls specifically blocking all outbound connections c) firewalls blocking/allowing connections to particular ports or hosts

If this does not work, also try the following ports in place of 587

telnet smtp.gmail.com 465
telnet smtp.gmail.com 25

If one of these is more successful, change your mail server settings to use accordingly.

Edit: We had quite a bit of trouble using Gmail and then Gmail with our custom domain. One thing that can help is to remove the :domain line from your configuration file, try without it.

For reference, here is my Gmail config in prod using our custom domain hosted by Gmail:

config.action_mailer.default_url_options = { :host => "my.website.com" }
config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = {
    address:              'smtp.gmail.com',
    port:                 587,
    domain:               'website.com',
    user_name:            'user@website.com',
    password:             'password',
    authentication:       'plain',
    enable_starttls_auto: true
}

Also, if you do have 2-factor authentication enabled on your Gmail account, you might want to disable it and try this again just to confirm it is not complicating the issue.