SMTP email "Service" I can include in my C# project? - c#

I've written several programs that send email from C#. This works great in winXP, but I find it breaks in Win7. My understanding is that even though the SMTP server I'm referencing is on another computer, the sending computer needs to have the SMTP service installed (and win7 does not).
I know its possible to install a third party SMTP server, but then I'd need to do that on every computer running my programs. Instead, I'd like to include a temporary SMTP server in my project that I can use entirely from code to do the same job. Does anyone know of a library (or sample code) on how I can include a temporary SMTP server in my project?
Here is my code:
public static void sendEmail(String[] recipients, String sender, String subject, String body, String[] attachments)
{
MailMessage message;
try
{
message = new MailMessage(sender, recipients[0]);
}
catch (Exception)
{
return;
}
foreach (String s in recipients)
{
if (!message.To.Contains(new MailAddress(s)))
message.To.Add(s);
}
message.From = new MailAddress(sender);
message.Subject = subject;
message.Body = body;
message.IsBodyHtml = true;
SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient("PRIVATE.PRIVATE.PRIVATE", 25);
smtp.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.PickupDirectoryFromIis;
//smtp.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
if (attachments.Length > 0)
{
foreach (String a in attachments)
{
message.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(a));
}
}
try
{
smtp.SendAsync(message, null);

To send emails from c#, you do not need a local SMTP service. You just need the System.Net.Mail library. Using a remote SMTP server (possibly one with valid PTR settings and not one in your network to avoid being regarded as a spammer) should definitely suffice.

It may be a credentials issue. Change SendAsync to Send to see if you are getting any exceptions. Or add a handler for the Async invocation
smtp.SendCompleted += delegate(object s, System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Error != null)
{
System.Diagnostics.Trace.TraceError(e.Error.ToString());
}
};
Following changes to your code works for me in Win7
SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587);
//smtp.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.PickupDirectoryFromIis;
smtp.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
smtp.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(GoogleUserEmail, GooglePassword);
smtp.EnableSsl = true;
// smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
if (attachments != null && attachments.Length > 0)
{
foreach (String a in attachments)
{
message.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(a));
}
}
try
{
smtp.Send(message);
}

I have never found an embeddable SMTP server, but both of these are close and you could probably modify them to fit your needs.
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/smtppop3mailserver.aspx
http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/cses/developers.html
I'm going to keep looking because this is also something I'd find useful. I'll post more if I find any.

If you just use an unconfigured service to send your emails you will definitely end up in the SPAM folder due to reverse DNS and SPF checks failing. So you'll want to configure your server properly. Alternatively you can use a 3rd party service like Elastic Email. Here is Elastic Email's sample code which uses HTTP to send the mail:
public static string SendEmail(string to, string subject, string bodyText, string bodyHtml, string from, string fromName)
{
WebClient client = new WebClient();
NameValueCollection values = new NameValueCollection();
values.Add("username", USERNAME);
values.Add("api_key", API_KEY);
values.Add("from", from);
values.Add("from_name", fromName);
values.Add("subject", subject);
if (bodyHtml != null)
values.Add("body_html", bodyHtml);
if (bodyText != null)
values.Add("body_text", bodyText);
values.Add("to", to);
byte[] response = client.UploadValues("https://api.elasticemail.com/mailer/send", values);
return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(response);
}

Have you tried specifying SMTP settings in an App.config file? Something like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<system.net>
<mailSettings>
<smtp deliveryMethod="Network">
<specifiedPickupDirectory pickupDirectoryLocation="C:\tmp"/>
<network host="smtp.example.com"/>
</smtp>
</mailSettings>
</system.net>
</configuration>
If you change deliveryMethod="SpecifiedPickupDirectory" then it'll just write a file representing the email that would be sent to the directory you specify.

Related

SmtpClient Send(Mail) function timeout error

I am trying to send out an email to a mailing list that I have created, but when I run the function it just times out. I am not sure whether it is a host error or if I'm missing code or what. I am running an mvc format program on a local server.
I originally didn't have the credentials, but adding them changed nothing. Both before and after adding them all that happens is it loads for about a minute before reporting a timeout.
private void SendEmail(string sender, string[] attachments, List<string> recipients, ReleaseNotes notes, string username, string password)
{
SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
MailMessage mail = new MailMessage();
mail.Subject = "Software Release of VCM Version " + notes.ReleaseVersion;
mail.From = new MailAddress(sender);
mail.Body = GetEmailBody(notes);
mail.IsBodyHtml = true;
foreach (string r in recipients)
{
mail.To.Add(r);
}
foreach (string a in attachments)
{
mail.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(a));
}
client.Host = "pod51213.outlook.com";
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username, password);
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client.Send(mail);
}
I am supposed to see the email appear in my inbox while the screen switches over to a screen saying email was sent. Its not giving me an actual error code. It just says operation timed out.
I was able to get the host I needed and get the function to run. The company I wrote the code for had their own host server. All I did to fix the code was delete the line that included client.Credentials, because I did not need that, and in the quotes for client.Host I replaced "pod51213.outlook.com" with "smtp.irco.com", which is the mail server for the company I built the program for.
I Think you should specify the port number
e.g.
SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587) // This for gmail

Sender Email Address rejected and the sender is null

I have searched all over and I'm not coming up with any solutions to my problem.
I've got an Email service setup with a method SendEmail which looks like this:
public void SendEmail(List<string> message, recipientEmail)
{
MailMessage mailMessage = new MailMessage();
mailMessage.To.Add(recipientEmail);
mailMessage.Subject("My subject");
mailMessage.IsBodyHtml = true;
mailMessage.Body = message;
var address = 123.0.0.0;
var port = 1;
using (var client = new SmtpClient(address))
{
client.Port = port;
client.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network;
client.UserDefaultCredentials = false;
client.EnableSsl = false;
client.Send(mailMessage);
}
}
When I run my code I am getting this error:
Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: Sender email address
rejected
Which is totally true, my sender is null in the mailMessage.
However, in my Web.config I am doing this:
<system.net>
<mailSettings>
<smtp from="myEmail#mailinator.com">
</smtp>
</mailSettings>
</system.net>
Which I thought should just work.
So I tried adding mailMessage.Sender = new MailAddress("myEmail#mailinator.com")
And voila, it works, but I'm baffled how my other application still works without that.
I'm doing (as far as I can tell) the exact same thing in another application for a batch process I wrote and it works perfectly fine there. When I try using all of the identical settings to that batch process in my new application I get this error. I did write the batch process 6+ months ago so perhaps I have some magic sauce going on somewhere in there, or I'm just missing something obvious here.

System.Net mail settings using Network Solutions hosted email

I am trying to use my email service through Network Solutions (NetSol) so that emails sent via the application come from our domains service#ourdomain address.
I cannot seem to make it work, and I am not sure it is even doable since its a webmail service which I can access in a browser using a url like http://mail.ourdomain.com.
According to their site, the smtp settings can be found here
NetSol smtp
Using that information I set up my mail settings as follows
<mailSettings>
<smtp deliveryMethod="Network">
<network host="smtp.ourdomain.com" port="587" userName="service#ourdomain.com" password="xxxxxxxx" enableSsl="true" />
</smtp>
</mailSettings>
I know the password is correct as I'm able to login to my mail in the webbrowser so I don't believe its a credentials error although the error in the method is erring on the credential piece.
private async Task SendMailMessageAsync(MailMessage msg)
{
var acct = Username;
var pwd = Password;
msg.IsBodyHtml = true;
using (var mailClient = new SmtpClient())
{
if (acct != string.Empty && pwd != string.Empty)
{
var credentials = new NetworkCredential(acct, pwd);
mailClient.Credentials = credentials; //ERRING HERE
}
await mailClient.SendMailAsync(msg);
}
}
Is anyone familiar with the proper setup for NetSol professional email?
UPDATE:
For some reason, my code edit in the answer I accepted wasn't accepted. So here is the code, in working order based on the comments in the accepted answer.
public void SendNetSolEmail()
{
var sender = "whatever#yourdomain.com";
var pass = "yourpassword";
var mailMessage = new MailMessage(sender, "sendto_emailaddress", "Hi there", "This method works fine!");
var mailClient = new SmtpClient("mail.yourdomain.com", 587)
{
Credentials = new NetworkCredential(sender,pass),
EnableSsl = false, //important for Network Solutions mail
DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network
};
mailClient.Send(mailMessage);
}
A simple working example of connecting to NetSol's smtp
System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient mailMsg = new System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient("mail.domain.com", 587);
mailMsg.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("username#domain.com", "password");
mailMsg.SendMailAsync("username#domain.com", "someone.somewhere#somedomain.com", "Hi Someone", "Body of the email");
and the last note as I see you have ssl enabled; Here it is direct from NetSol:
Note - Make sure you are not chosing and SSL type, this option should be turned off, or "None" should be selected.

Send mail with attachment

Edit: I'm able to send mail without attachment
Getting this error while trying to send mail:
System.Net.Mail.SmtpException: The operation has timed out.
Following is my code:
public static void SendMailMessage(string to, string subject, string body, List<string> attachment)
{
MailMessage mMailMessage = new MailMessage();
// string body; --> Compile time error, body is already defined as an argument
mMailMessage.From = new MailAddress("abc#gmail.com");
mMailMessage.To.Add(new MailAddress(to));
mMailMessage.Subject = subject;
mMailMessage.Body = body;
foreach (string s in attachment)
{
var att = new Attachment(s);
mMailMessage.Attachments.Add(att);
}
// Set the format of the mail message body as HTML
mMailMessage.IsBodyHtml = true;
// Set the priority of the mail message to normal
mMailMessage.Priority = MailPriority.High;
using (SmtpClient mSmtpClient = new SmtpClient())
{
mSmtpClient.Send(mMailMessage);
}
}
Web Config
<system.net>
<mailSettings>
<smtp from="mailid">
<network host="smtp.gmail.com" port="587" enableSsl="true" userName="username" password="pass" />
</smtp>
</mailSettings>
Note : Attachments not exceeding its limit(below than 25 mb)
What can I do to solve this problem, or what am I missing?
So basically we discovered during the chat that the problem occurs
because the upload of the attachments takes to long.
One way to solve it is to increase the timeout value of the SmtpClient:
mSmtpClient.Timeout = int.MaxValue;
Note: Use int.MaxValue for testing but use a more realistic value for the deployed solution.
Setup a local smtp server to relay through, or use something like http://aws.amazon.com/ses/. I don't think google is going to allow you to programtically relay through their servers.

System.Net.Mail.SmtpException : SMTP command timeout - closing connection

I am having an error that is occurring sporadically. When I encounter this error, if I try again, the e-mail will send. I cannot reliably reproduce the error, but it is hapening frequently enough to be a problem.
System.Net.Mail.SmtpException : Service not available, closing transmission channel. The server response was: [Servername]: SMTP command timeout - closing connection
Stack Trace:
at System.Net.Mail.MailCommand.CheckResponse(SmtpStatusCode statusCode, String response) at System.Net.Mail.MailCommand.Send(SmtpConnection conn, Byte[] command, String from) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpTransport.SendMail(MailAddress sender, MailAddressCollection recipients, String deliveryNotify, SmtpFailedRecipientException& exception) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message)
Here's the code in question. It uses an HTML template (database driven with a web url default backup) to inject values and create an html e-mail.
public void AccountActivationEmail(Common.Request.Email.AccountActivation request)
{
var profile = profileRepository.GetOne(new ProfileByUsername(request.Username, request.SiteId));
var options = siteService.GetOptions(new GatewayOptionsRequest()
{
SiteId = request.SiteId
});
var site = options.Site;
ExpiringHMAC hmac = new ExpiringHMAC(request.ExpireOn, new string[] { request.AccountId.ToString(), request.AccountKey.ToString(), request.Username });
Dictionary<string, string> data = new Dictionary<string, string>();
data.Add("{{logourl}}", String.IsNullOrEmpty(options.FullyHostedGateway.LogoUrl) ? UrlHelper.ConvertRelativeToAbsolute("/content/images/spacer.png") : options.FullyHostedGateway.LogoUrl);
data.Add("{{name}}", profile.Name.DisplayName);
data.Add("{{sitename}}", site.Name.DisplayName);
data.Add("{{activationlink}}", String.Format(ActivationUrlFormat, options.UrlFriendlyName, Encryption.EncryptQueryString(request.Username), hmac.ToString()));
MailDefinition template = new MailDefinition();
MailMessage message = null;
var emailTemplate = options.GetEmailTemplate(EmailTemplateType.ActivateAccount);
string defaultSubject = "Activate Account";
bool hasTemplate = false;
if (emailTemplate != null)
{
hasTemplate = !String.IsNullOrEmpty(emailTemplate.Template);
}
if (!hasTemplate)
{
template.BodyFileName = activationDefaultTemplateUrl;
message = template.CreateMailMessage(request.EmailAddress, data, new System.Web.UI.LiteralControl());
message.IsBodyHtml = true;
message.Subject = defaultSubject;
}
else
{
message = template.CreateMailMessage(request.EmailAddress, data, emailTemplate.Template, new System.Web.UI.LiteralControl());
message.IsBodyHtml = emailTemplate.IsHtml;
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(emailTemplate.Subject))
message.Subject = emailTemplate.Subject;
else
message.Subject = defaultSubject;
}
if (options.ContactDetails != null)
{
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(options.ContactDetails.EmailAddress))
message.From = new MailAddress(options.ContactDetails.EmailAddress);
}
SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient();
client.Send(message);
}
This code is part of a class that is generated as a singleton using Structuremap. I thought maybe that might be causing the issue, but every time the method is called, a new SmtpClient object is created, which should eliminate the problems I have seen about using the same connection to send multiple e-mails.
We have nothing blocking or restricting the connection, which is the official stance our e-mail hosting is taking on this issue. I want to see if there's any way to do this better so I don't get these errors.
EDIT:
I do have my mail server defined in my web.config. I have confirmed with my e-mail hosting that my settings are correct.
<system.net>
<mailSettings>
<smtp deliveryMethod="Network" from="no-reply#mydomain.com">
<network host="smtp.emailhost.com" userName="someaddress#mydomain.com"
password="myPassword1" port="2500" />
</smtp>
</mailSettings>
</system.net>
Are you disposing of the Smtp Client object after sending? From http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/337557/smtpclient-does-not-close-session-after-sending-message it would appear that "...even if you are creating a new instance of the SmtpClient every time, it still uses the same unerlying session."
So perhaps
using (SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient())
{
client.Send(message);
}

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