I have been working for this error for the whole day and already tried to search for help in many forums.
I have run my phpmailer code that used smtp.gmail.com, and for around 5 mins, the code does not response anything to the client.
So i tried to debug the smtp.gmail.com by pinging it in my cmd and i got this.
Pinging gmail-smtp-msa.l.google.com [74.125.68.108] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
but when i tried typing telnet smtp.gmail.com 587 to cmd, it is connected
smtp.gmail.com is not a fixed IP - it will map to many different IPs that change frequently - the TTL is only 5 minutes. You should not attempt to use the IP addresss directly, just look up the names.
There's no malware at work here. A reverse lookup points at wq-in-f108.1e100.net, and both that domain and the IP are owned by Google.
Ping doesn't necessarily always work - it can be blocked on outbound or inbound either by your ISP or Google, though that IP currently responds for me. If telnet to 587 works, then that's a better and more reliable test, since that's the service you actually want.