Database mail won't send emails

Question

I am trying to setup database mail in ms sql 2005. I setup but everytime I try to send a msg through their email tester it fails and I get this msg.

Date 7/7/2010 10:54:12 AM Log Database Mail (Database Mail Log)

Log ID 48 Process ID 2148 Mail Item ID 23 Last Modified 7/7/2010 10:54:12 AM Last Modified By sa

Message The mail could not be sent to the recipients because of the mail server failure. (Sending Mail using Account 1 (2010-07-07T10:54:11). Exception Message: Cannot send mails to mail server. (Failure sending mail.). )

I don't understand why. I am using my isp smtp and it use to work for a brief time with database mail. I even pinged my smtp server through cmd prompt and I can reach it. So I don't understand why it does not work.

I even tried my hosting company smtp and gmail smtp. I always get the same msg.

When I try the tutorial provided my Km_ I get

1) Exception Information  ===================  Exception Type: System.NullReferenceException  Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.  Data: System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal  TargetSite: Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SqlIMail.Server.Objects.Account GetAccount(Int32)  HelpLink: NULL  Source: DatabaseMailEngine    StackTrace Information  ===================     at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SqlIMail.Server.DataAccess.DataAccessAdapter.GetAccount(Int32 accountID)     at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SqlIMail.Server.DataAccess.SessionManager.GetAccount(Int32 accountID)     at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SqlIMail.Server.Controller.CommandFactory.CreateSendMailCommand(DBSession dbSession)     at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SqlIMail.Server.Controller.CommandFactory.CreateCommand(DBSession dbSession)     at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SqlIMail.Server.Controller.CommandRunner.Run(DBSession db)     at Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SqlIMail.IMailProcess.ThreadCallBack.MailOperation(Object o)

Answer 1

Is database mail option ON? If not use this script and make sure it is on

sp_CONFIGURE 'show advanced', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO
sp_CONFIGURE 'Database Mail XPs', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO 
sp_CONFIGURE 'show advanced', 0
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO

Also make sure port 25 is open. If you are using gmail you may have to use port 587. check out this blog

Answer 2

There are many reasons this kind of thing can fail. Unfortunately, the log you got isn't detailed enough to trace the exact reason for it. What I'm suspecting is the case here is that the "From:" address in the mails is not configured correctly. Most mailers require either the To: or the From: address to be in a list of local domains ('gmail.com' for instance) and won't accept mail that doesn't have this. So if your mail is coming from "[email protected]" and is sending to "[email protected]" but forwarding through your local ISP's mailer, the ISP's mailer will reject the message. This kind of thing can be bypassed if you can configure authenticated-SMTP.