A user named hypertext is seeking help configuring SMTP for their Discourse forum hosted on DigitalOcean, using an OVH email account (no-reply@myOVHdomain.fr). Despite trying multiple server names (smtp.myOVHdomain.org, ns0.ovh.net, ssl.ovh.net) and ports (465, 587, 995, 110), they consistently encounter errors like hostname mismatches or “getaddrinfo: Name or service not known”. che2on suggests checking DNS propagation and confirms the default port 587 should work. omfg criticizes the lack of detailed config sharing and points to OVH’s official SMTP documentation, clarifying that IMAP ports shouldn’t be used for SMTP. zogstrip recommends checking logs at http://your.discourse.com/logs, which hypertext initially misunderstood. PabloC advises using third-party email services like Mandrill or Mailgun for reliability, which hypertext considers but prefers keeping services compact. After revising their post for clarity, hypertext finally finds the working config: DISCOURSE_SMTP_ADDRESS: smtp.myOVHdomain.org, DISCOURSE_SMTP_PORT: 587, and DISCOURSE_SMTP_ENABLE_START_TLS: false. The issue was likely TLS misconfiguration, resolved by disabling STARTTLS.
Sorry for my sketchy english, I’ll try to do my best
I have registered a domain name with OVH and created a special email adress for discourse : no-reply@myOVHdomain.fr
My Discourse forum is hosted on digital ocean .
The installation work great, but it never send mail to my developer email adresse,
I think i cant make the SMTP configuration work.
Did someone got the same probleme with OVH ? @pl3bs ?
I have purchase this domain name last agust, but i created the no-reply email before the install. But login the no-reply email and checked if it worked before launching the install.
It’s interesting how the initial reaction (nothing personal) of people who fail to config their email is to ask this forum as if it’s possible for Discourse to control the sending of email without the server playing any role in it.
Maybe the docs should be improved and a comment added to the YML file, to just google it?
A simple google search for ova smtp email gave me the answer on the first page
I thnk the recommended approach is to use a 3rd party email service “battle tested”, for example Mandrill. There are plenty of configs here if you like to test it.
I’m hosting at OVH too, but I prefer to use Mandrill or Mailgun to push emails.
thx for the advice Pablo,
I ll definitly do that if i dont fine any solution.
I there a reason why you prefer to use 3rd party email service ?
Personnaly i prefer to have my services “compact”
Okay. My comment wasn’t specific to you, although you hadn’t mentioned you tried the correct port as well.
More general stuff:
in troubleshooting I wouldn’t try the wrong ports, it doesn’t make much sense
I would list port(s) I did try, and paste a link to the source which advises to use those ports so that
we don’t have to google it
you show us what docs you followed
You didn’t do these steps and look how many people joined the topic and still no answer.
On the link I pasted above you have SMTP server info, whereas other hostname and ports are used for IMAP. Two services, two different host names.
Since you didn’t hadn’t explained which ports you tried in which combination with what setting, we can only keep guessing what doesn’t work. Most likely the instructions linked above work just fine. If they don’t, paste your config for each try.
