Are you having trouble sending via your remote email provider with Joomla via SMTP? Often times we see a messages like "SMTP Connect() Failed" in Joomla and then proceed to change the settings. We try every possible combination and then research on Google only to bring back pages of solutions. When none of them work we come to the conclusions found in this article that ultimately get our remote SMTP connecton working.
I recently ran into issues with AOL where my client "had to use AOL" because they had been using the same AOL email for years. This article is going to get you to the root of the issue, and quickly.
This article addresses the key issues faced when attemping to connect to a remote mail server via SMTP.