Cannot send mail from scheduled script on FM Server

[jjjjp]

I am trying to figure out why I am getting error code 1502 (Connection refused by SMTP server) whenever I send emails from a scheduled server script using the script step Send Mail [ Send via SMTP Server;  . . . ]. The acting IT person in my department doesn't know FileMaker, so I am trying to help, but I didn't set up FM Server in the first place and don't have the kind of access he does. I would very much appreciate help from the Forum. The problem first arose when FM Server had to be reinstalled after a ransomware attack several months ago. The error has remained since then. I am quite certain there is no problem with the way I have configured the SMTP server in the script step, since the Send Mail step executes fine from my computer using FM Pro.

(If there is an issue receiving support for FM Server 16, I will look to upgrading. Let me know.)

I'm hoping the following information will help diagnose the problem. When I edit the daily schedule on FM Server, I get the following message:

 

I note that the fields on the following form are all empty:

 

Would this explain the problem, or is something else likely at issue? If something else, please let me know if you have any leads.

Thanks in advance.

[Wim Decorte]

Yes, you need to configure that last screenshot before you'll get emails from errors and warnings about the server-side schedules.

If you are talking about using SMTP from *inside* the FM scripts with the FM Send Mail script steps, then that is another issue.

[jjjjp]

It appear, then, that the blanks fields for SMTP would not be causing the script step from within the scheduled FM script to fail. This is very helpful to have confirmed. So I am going to assume there is nothing in the way FileMaker Server is configured that could be causing the Send Mail command to fail. If there is in fact something else in that configuration that would lead to failure, please let me know? But it appears that the problem lies outside of FileMaker.

 

Thanks.

[Wim Decorte]

Some thoughts:

- The server itself could be configured to not allow outgoing traffic on the SMTP ports

- the SMTP server may not be accepting traffic from this server

- SMTP is going to be more and more troublesome when using basic auth (see intro on this blog post https://www.soliantconsulting.com/blog/microsoft-graph-api-filemaker-one/ ) - so I strongly suggest that you switch to using an email-sending API instead

[jjjjp]

Thanks. Your item 1 ("the server itself could be configured to not allow outgoing traffic on the SMTP ports") seems to me the most likely. By server, I assume you mean not FM Server but the department server on which FM Server resides. 

Since the current IT support is very short-staffed now, I am going to leave raising item 3 for the future unless it is a possible source of the failure.