Connecting to SMTP server through PHP fails - php

Question

I have a website which I have programmed one of its pages to connect to SMTP to send clients an email. The issue starts when I upload the files to host, which then it won't connect and show me an error SMTP Error: Connection timed out.
On localhost, the code works fine and connects successfully in an instance. Is there something I need to change in the code or in the host settings to make it work fine?
Using PHPMailer, these are my connection variables (excluding subject, body etc):
$mail->SMTPDebug = 2; // Enable verbose debug output
$mail->isSMTP(); // Set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com'; // Specify main and backup SMTP servers
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // Enable SMTP authentication
$mail->AuthType = 'LOGIN';
$mail->Username = 'email#gmail.com'; // SMTP username
$mail->Password = 'mypassword'; // SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'ssl'; // Enable TLS encryption, `ssl` also accepted
$mail->Port = 465; // TCP port to connect to
$mail->SMTPOptions = array( 'ssl' => array( 'verify_peer' => false ) );

Answer 1

The issue starts when I upload the files to host
Why do you think that uploading files influencing the connectivity to the mail server?
$mail->SMTPOptions = array( 'ssl' => array( 'verify_peer' => false ) );
That's not a good idea.
Is there something I need to change in the code or in the host settings to make it work fine?
If you change something in the code, in the host settings or in the network infrastructure where the host resides then it will probably start working (see note 1) but because you've only told us about (some of) the code, we cannot guess what that might be.
Its not uncommon for an internet facing host to be constrained in what it can do - this can be restricted by routing, firewalls, DNS availability & permissions. These are the things you should be checking (or speaking to the people whom manage the host).
note 1: for the benefit of later readers - you may also need to change something at the mail server too - but that probably doesn't apply here if the code behaves as expected when running on a different host)

Answer 2

$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls';
$mail->Port = 587;

Answer 3

You are having Connection timeout issue. That is most possibly because of something wrong in your configuration which is preventing your code to connect with google smtp server.
First of all make sure you are using the latest version of PHPMailer. Going further with your code that is having issue
Please follow the following update to debug and resolve the issue
$mail->SMTPDebug = 2; // Enable verbose debug output
$mail->isSMTP(); // Set mailer to use SMTP
$mail->Host = 'smtp.gmail.com'; // Specify main and backup SMTP servers
$mail->SMTPAuth = true; // Enable SMTP authentication;
$mail->Username = 'email#gmail.com'; // SMTP username
$mail->Password = 'mypassword'; // SMTP password
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'tls'; // Enable TLS encryption, `ssl` also accepted
$mail->Port = 587; // TCP port to connect to`
`$mail->AuthType = 'LOGIN'
$mail->SMTPOptions = array( 'ssl' => array( 'verify_peer' => false ) );`
I believe you should get a positive result if you try with the edited code chunk.
For further clarity on this, you might like to have a look at their (PHPMailer's) actual doc to connect with Google SMTP
Hope, this helps!