Error occurred while communicating with SMTP server - Event 6858 (SharePoint 2010 Products)

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Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010

Alert Name:   Error occurred while communicating with SMTP server

Event ID:   6858

Summary:   Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 sends alerts and other administration messages by using an SMTP mail server. You can specify which SMTP server to use to send the alerts, and you can set the e-mail address to use for sending alerts and receiving replies for all sites, by using the Outgoing E-Mail Settings page on the SharePoint Central Administration Web site.

Symptoms:   The following symptoms might appear:

  • Cannot send e-mail using SPUtility.SendEmail

  • Cannot send e-mail messages, including alert e-mail, confirmation e-mail, invitation e-mail, e-mail about exceeding quota

  • This event appears in the event log: Event ID: 6858 Description: Cannot resolve name of SMTP host <host id>.

Cause:   One or more of the following might be the cause:

  • Microsoft SharePoint Foundation cannot connect to the SMTP host.

  • SharePoint Foundation cannot resolve name of the outbound SMTP server.

To resolve this issue, use the resolution that corresponds to the cause that you identify. After performing the resolution, see the “Verify that an e-mail alert is sent” section at the end of this article to confirm that the feature is operating properly.

Note

You must be a member of the Farm Administrators SharePoint group to perform the following actions.

Resolution:   Start and configure the SMTP service

  1. In Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager, connect to the SMTP server.

  2. Expand the server node and look for the SMTP virtual server used by SharePoint Foundation.

  3. Right-click the correct virtual server, and then click Start.

  4. To configure the virtual server, open the virtual server's properties.

  5. On the Delivery tab, click Outbound Security.

  6. In the Outbound Security dialog box, select either Anonymous access or Integrated Windows Authentication. If you selected Integrated Windows Authentication, make sure that the Windows SharePoint Services Central Administration application pool account is authenticated on the SMTP server by selecting the Account and Password check boxes.

Resolution:   Configure outgoing e-mail settings in Central Administration

  1. On the Central Administration page, click System Settings and in the E-Mail section click Configure Outgoing E-Mail Settings.

  2. On the Outgoing E-Mail Settings page, in the Mail Settings section type the correct SMTP server in the Outbound SMTP server text box.

Verify that an e-mail alert is sent

  1. Navigate to a SharePoint Foundation Web site that has a list of any type.

  2. Click an item in the list.

  3. Click an item in the list and on the ribbon, click Share & Track.

  4. Click Alert Me and from the menu select For this item.

  5. In the New Alert dialog box, in the Send Alerts To section, type the account name in the Users box.

  6. After verifying other settings, click OK.

    An e-mail message is sent to the e-mail Inbox informing you that you have created a new alert.