Connection to Gmail server “timing out.”

Topic

New Reply

[Susan Bradley]

I’ve been having a connection problem with Gmail that’s been driving me batty (my Dear Wife would say, “It’s a short trip”). I am using Windows 10 Education 22H2 with all the latest updates. I made sure that my bios is up-to-date and I refreshed the chipset drivers on my Asus motherboard. I also reset my network adapters per a suggestion elsewhere in this forum.
When using an ethernet connection to my Fios router, I can send simple e-mails with either Thunderbird or eM Client. But when I send or forward more complex e-mails, such as those with threads or attachments, I usually get the following error message with both clients: “Sending of the message failed. The message could not be sent because the connection to Outgoing server (SMTP) smtp.gmail.com timed out. Try again.”

I don’t have any problem if I use a wi-fi connection using a USB TP Link dongle. I also don’t have any problem if I use Linux Mint, which is installed on my PC. (Linux is on a physically separate SSD, which I invoke by manipulating the BIOS, not in a conventional dual-boot configuration.
Both e-mail accounts were installed using the automatic features of the clients that have worked well before.
The fact that Linux e-mail works without a hitch suggests to me that my motherboard ethernet chips are not damaged, and Windows tells me that they are functioning correctly. So that points to software, maybe my OS. So I tried a repair install of W10, which did not cure the problem. I then did a clean install of W10, but that did not help either.
I am stumped and would appreciate any tips you could give me.
Thanks,
Rich

 

(Moderator removed html, corrected Title.)

• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Susan Bradley.
• This topic was modified 1 year ago by satrow. Reason: Fixed title sp

Reply | Quote

Replies

Open a Command prompt and run (copy and paste) the following…

tracert smtp.gmail.com

Note: It is normal to see “Request timed out” along the route.

We’re looking to see if it happens at the endpoint.

Reply | Quote

Thanks for your suggestion Old Navy Guy (from an old army guy).  Here’s what I got, although I have no idea how to interpret the results (I also got the timed-out error when I used my wireless connection after about 16 iterations of the test, but wireless has been reliable for me):

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.4291]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Rich>tracert smtp.gmail.com

Tracing route to smtp.gmail.com [2607:f8b0:4004:c21::6c]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 2600:4040:4931:a000::1
2 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms 2600:4040:4930::1
3 3 ms 5 ms 5 ms 2600:4000:1:236::338
4 7 ms 6 ms 3 ms loopback1.ASBNVAEG-PPR01-CC.ALTER.NET [2600:803::5b]
5 * * 5 ms 2600:803:98f::ca
6 6 ms 4 ms 5 ms 2607:f8b0:800b::1
7 6 ms 5 ms 5 ms 2001:4860:0:1::5858
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * 8 ms * 2001:4860::c:4002:3324
10 12 ms 8 ms 4 ms 2001:4860::c:4002:f662
11 7 ms 7 ms 10 ms 2001:4860::cc:4002:f667
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms pe-in-f108.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4004:c21::6c]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Rich>

Reply | Quote

WSCycler2 wrote:

19 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms pe-in-f108.1e100.net [2607:f8b0:4004:c21::6c]

The trace made it to the end-point (smtp.gmail.com).

It could have something to do with Google’s “Less Secure Apps” policy…

What Are “Less Secure Apps” and Why is My Gmail Not Working?

 

Reply | Quote