Action Mailer - connection refused - connect(2)

hi:

I am on Mac OSX 10.4 using locomotive.

My ActionMailer configuration is

ActionMailer::Base.delivery_method = :smtp # or :sendmail or test
ActionMailer::Base.server_settings = {
:address => “mail.albertafilmworks.com”,
:port => 25,
:domain => “brucebalmercanada.com
}
ActionMailer::Base.perform_deliveries = true # alternative was false
ActionMailer::Base.default_charset = “utf-8”

I have created the mail successfully because I can display it in my
browser. But when I try to send it I get this error:

Errno::ECONNREFUSED in Events#send_my_email

Connection refused - connect(2)

My mail account does not require authentication.

I also tried using the sendmail option but got the same error. I also
tried a different mail account I have (dot mac) and received the same
error.

Any ideas where I should begin looking?

bruce

you may need to specify 3 more server settings:

:user_name – If your mail server requires authentication, set the
username in this setting.
:password – If your mail server requires authentication, set the
password in this setting.
:authentication – :login is common

Also, your mail server’s address my be something like
smtp.albertafilmworks.com’.
you may want to call your tech support/ISP and find out what all the
params should be.

Lou:

Thanks for taking the time to write.

I have written to my ISP but I doubt that is the problem since I have
tried it from sendmail and from another mailserver (my dot mac
account). Whatever I do and whoever I connect to, I get the same
connection error.

Any more ideas?

bruce

telnet mail.albertafilmworks.com 25

doing this will verify the mail server is accessible
(you should see a one-line message saying something about which
mail service is available).

then you just need to figure out what the remaining authentication
parameters are, if no other way but trail and error if your ISP
isn’t helping.

here’s another email test script:

#!/bin/env ruby

This is used to send email.

require ‘net/smtp’

# Helper method.
# Append _appendage_ to end of string if it already doesn't exist
# at the end of the string.
class String #:nodoc:
	def appendIfMissing(appendage)
		return self if appendage.nil? || appendage.size < 1
		return appendage if size < 1
		if self[-appendage.size..-1] == appendage
			self
		else
			self + appendage
		end
	end
end


class String #:nodoc:
  def blank?
	empty? || strip.empty?
  end
end


# Print an error message.
def err(msg, printRubyErr=false, fatal=true) #:nodoc:
	STDERR.print "\n### ERROR: #{msg}\n\n"
	STDERR.print "\n#{$!}\n\n" if printRubyErr
	exit if fatal
	"### ERROR: #{msg}\n#{$!}\n"
end



# simple check of email address.
def checkMailAddress(address, descr) #:nodoc:
	address.strip!
	addr = address[/<?\w+@\w+\.\w+>?$/]
	if addr.blank?
		err(descr,false,false)
		return nil
	end
	addr
end


# Send email.
def mail( od )
	# The email is composed of the 'From', 'To', and 'Subject' fields, 

followed by the body text.
# Strip off leading white space.
(msgstr = <<END_OF_MAIL_MESSAGE).gsub!(/^\s+/, ‘’)
From: #{od[‘-=’]}
To: #{od[‘-t’]}
Subject: #{od[‘-j’].blank? ? ‘No Subject’ : od[‘-j’]}

END_OF_MAIL_MESSAGE

	msgstr += od['-b']

	return if (addr_from = checkMailAddress(od['-='], "no 'From' address 

(#{od[‘-=’]})") ).nil?
return if (addr_to = checkMailAddress(od[‘-t’], “no ‘To’ address
(#{od[‘-t’]})”) ).nil?

	# The email is actually sent here.
	begin
		Net::SMTP.start(od['-m'], 25, od['-n'], od['-S'], od['-P'], :login) { 

|smtp|
smtp.send_message msgstr, addr_from, addr_to
}

		puts "-- mail sent to #{addr_to}" if od['-V']
	rescue Exception => ex
		err("unable to send mail.\n#{msgstr}\n#{$!}\naddr 

from:#{addr_from}\naddr to:#{addr_to}", true)
end
end # mail

od = {  '-=' => 'My Long Name<[email protected]>', # mail from
	'-t' => 'My Long Name<[email protected]>', # mail to
	'-j' => 'This is a test',		# mail subject
	'-b' => 'Body text of the email.',	# mail body text
	'-m' => 'smtp.XXX.net',			# mail server
	'-n' => 'www.XXX.net',			# domain sending mail from
	'-S' => 'mailusername',			# mail user name
	'-P' => 'super_secret_password',	# mail password
	'-V' => true }

mail od

thanks, lou

bruce

Lou:

Apologies for my persistence.

I telnetted in, as you suggested, but all was well. I tried sendmail
and 3 different ISPs but I always receive an identical error. I had
one of my ISPs (fortunately, a friend of mine) sit and watch his logs
while I attempted to send the email. He tells me that my machine
never contacted his machine.

So, can we go down a different avenue? Are you aware of any other
cause of this error?

bruce