Failed to connect to server: Connection refused (111) - phpmailer

Question

I am using PHPMailer to send the smtp emails. If I use the same setting in a WordPress site, it works fine. But my priority is to use in a custom php page. And there, it is giving the following errors
SMTP ERROR: Failed to connect to server: Connection refused (111)
SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting
Mailer Error: SMTP connect() failed. https://github.com/PHPMailer/PHPMailer/wiki/Troubleshooting
My Code is here below
<?php
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
ini_set('display_startup_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);
require 'emails/PHPMailer/PHPMailerAutoload.php';
//Create a new PHPMailer instance
$mail = new PHPMailer;
//Tell PHPMailer to use SMTP
$mail->isSMTP();
//Enable SMTP debugging
// 0 = off (for production use)
// 1 = client messages
// 2 = client and server messages
$mail->SMTPDebug = 2;
//Ask for HTML-friendly debug output
$mail->Debugoutput = 'html';
//Set the hostname of the mail server
$mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
//Set the SMTP port number - likely to be 25, 465 or 587
$mail->Port = 587;
//Whether to use SMTP authentication
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
//Username to use for SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = "mzubim#gmail.com";
$mail->Password = "password";
//Set who the message is to be sent from
$mail->setFrom('mzubim#gmail.com', 'Zubair Mushtaq');
//Set an alternative reply-to address
$mail->addReplyTo('replyto#gmail.com', 'Secure Developer');
//Set who the message is to be sent to
$mail->addAddress('abulogics#gmail.com', 'Abulogicss');
//Set the subject line
$mail->Subject = 'PHPMailer SMTP test';
//Read an HTML message body from an external file, convert referenced images to embedded,
//convert HTML into a basic plain-text alternative body
$mail->msgHTML("convert HTML into a basic plain-text alternative body");
//Replace the plain text body with one created manually
$mail->AltBody = 'This is a plain-text message body';
//send the message, check for errors
if (!$mail->send()) {
echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
} else {
echo "Message sent!";
}

Answer 1

try this its working fine
<?php
include "emails/PHPMailer/PHPMailerAutoload.php";
//Create a new PHPMailer instance
$mail = new PHPMailer();
$mail->IsSMTP();
$mail->SMTPDebug = 1;
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->SMTPSecure = 'ssl';
$mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
$mail->Port = 465;
$mail->IsHTML(true);
//Username to use for SMTP authentication
$mail->Username = "#gmail.com";
$mail->Password = "";
//Set who the message is to be sent from
$mail->setFrom('mzubim#gmail.com', 'Zubair Mushtaq');
//Set an alternative reply-to address
$mail->addReplyTo('replyto#gmail.com', 'Secure Developer');
//Set who the message is to be sent to
$mail->addAddress('abulogics#gmail.com', 'Abulogicss');
//Set the subject line
$mail->Subject = 'PHPMailer SMTP test';
//Read an HTML message body from an external file, convert referenced images to embedded,
//convert HTML into a basic plain-text alternative body
$mail->msgHTML("convert HTML into a basic plain-text alternative body");
//Replace the plain text body with one created manually
$mail->AltBody = 'This is a plain-text message body';
//send the message, check for errors
if (!$mail->send()) {
echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
} else {
echo "Message sent!";
}

Answer 2

the PHPMailer docs says that if it
-> //TCP port to connect to; use 587 if you have set SMTPSecure = PHPMailer::ENCRYPTION_STARTTLS
And in your case u used ssl.

Answer 3

Consider increasing the debugging whilst you have the problem:
$mail->SMTPDebug = SMTP::DEBUG_LOWLEVEL ;
(see PHPMailer Debug messages)
My issue finally turned out to be the ports on my mail requesting server were not open to even get to the mail server (i.e. fix the firewall).