Debugging Email Problems within InstantKB.NET


This article is intended to provide guidance for debugging any email problems within InstantKB.NET. For example if you notice emails are not sending. It's assumed you've already modified the settings within InstantKB.NET to point towards your SMTP Server. You can modify email settings within InstantKB.NET from the Admin CP > Settings > Email & RSS page as hown in the screen grab below...



Enable Debug Information

The steps below will enable you to see the actual .NET exception message raised by the System.Net classes if InstantKB.NET has any problems communicating with your SMTP server.

1. Open the InstantKB.NET web.config

2. Change the InstantASP_AutoFlushMailQueue setting to True as shown below...

<add key="InstantASP_AutoFlushMailQueue" value="True" />

3. Change the InstantASP_EnableSMTPDebug setting to True as shown below...

<add key="InstantASP_EnableSMTPDebug" value="True" />

These changes will ensure InstantKB.Net displays the actual error message if your experiencing email problems.

Testing Emails

To now test the sending of email's you can update your username or perform another action within the application that generates email. To quickly test email's after this change please visit the Admin CP and click the Members link. Click "Manage Members" and click the "Edit Profile" link. Scroll down a little and click the Update Username button.

Add your username into the textbox and click send. This will attempt to send an email from the application and will show now with the changes above the true error message. Once you see the actual exception message we would suggest you forward the exception to support@instantasp.co.uk and we'll respond with what could be causing any problems.