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Outlook Cannot Connect To Outgoing Smtp Server?

Outlook Cannot Connect To Outgoing Smtp Server

In some situations, Outlook users might come across the following error message outlook cannot connect to outgoing SMTP server:

Task ‘account@domain.com – Sending’ reported error (0x80042109):Outlook cannot connect to your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server.

A suggestion usually follows the error message, and it asks the user to contact the ISP (Internet Service Provider) or server administrator if the same error message continues to appear on the computer screen.

The causes for the occurrence of the Outlook error under discussion might be one of the following:

  • Issues on the server side
  • Issues on the user side
  • ISP issues

    • Wrong configuration settings on Outlook could result in the error. An incorrectly-spelled mail server name or a wrong port setting might lead to connectivity issues so that the error outlook cannot connect to outgoing SMTP server is occurred. These will, in turn, cause the error to pop up.

    In case you can connect to the mail server IP and the ports for POP and SMTP, then the problem is not related to connectivity. It means that the 0x80042109 error is due to your Outlook settings.

    Steps to fix the Outlook error:

    • In Outlook, in the Incoming mail server settings section, check whether you have enabled the My SMTP Requires Authentication option.
    • If you have enabled the above option and the issue outlook cannot connect to outgoing SMTP server persists, then try disabling the firewall on your system. This system should be the local machine from which you are attempting to send your emails.
    • Now, using the webmail interface, try accessing your email account.
    • In case you are unable to access your email account through the webmail interface, it means that some action has to be taken from the server side. It also means that resolving the issue will take a while.
    • Sometimes, the server-side firewalls could be blocking some of the IPs or IP ranges.
    • But, if you are able to access your email account through your webmail interface, then it indicates that there is no problem on the server side. You simply have to contact your ISP and check whether they have blocked the ports 25 and 587. Your ISP might be blocking traffic through these ports in order to reduce automated spam.
    • If trying the above tips did not resolve the issue outlook cannot connect to outgoing SMTP server, then you do not have much choice left. You need to re-install the latest version of Outlook freshly on your system.