SMTP Error (-1): Connection to server failed

[Vinil]

Often we may find issues in sending mails from your cpanel domains even after trying to send mails using Webmail.

We will be receiving following error:-

SMTP Error (-1): Connection to server failed

In such cases, there is nothing to be panic. We can easily fix this issue within a short span of time.

1). First of all, check the exim status.

# service exim status
exim dead but subsys locked

If you see this error check for a file located in  /etc/eximdisable. If you found the file then do the following steps and you are all done.

root@server [/]# mv eximdisable eximdisable.bak
root@server [/]# /etc/init.d/exim restart


2). If the above steps didn't come to your help, then try the following steps.

Sometimes this error may also cause due to a setting in the CSF firewall or another firewall. It might be caused by having the following set:

SMTP_BLOCK = 1
SMTP_ALLOWLOCAL = 0

You would need to change SMTP_ALLOWLOCAL to 1 to enable Webmail to function.


3). One more tip:-

If the above two didn't come to your help, then the below steps indeed help you.


mv /etc/exim.conf /etc/exim.conf_bak    ------ (take a backup)

/scripts/rebuildeximbsd
/scripts/eximconfgen
/scripts/eximup –force
/etc/init.d/exim restart

Now the exim service will be working fine.