Port 465 closed/unresponsive?

Port scanning: many (all?) ports are closed/unresponsive?

In Network Utility, if I try to do a scan of ports 465 ... it's unresponsive and acts as if the port doesn't exist or is closed. I cannot send email through Gmail in a mail application now because of this issue.

After further testing, it's not just an issue with port 465. I get no response when I try to ping smtp.gmail.com, smtp.me.com, smtp.live.com on ports 465 & 25 (meaning that it's not a server-side issue). Furthermore, I don't get a response if I try to scan any port on the smtp.gmail.com server. I tested ports 465, 587, and 25. I do get a response for port 587 on smtp.me.com and smtp.live.com.

The problem began in Snow Leopard. I just upgraded my OS to Lion, which did not resolve the issue.

I have no firewall software that interferes with this port, proven by the fact that the problem persisted when I booted into safe mode.

Thoughts? I'm stumped. Thanks in advance...

Google has a workaround for this issue, so maybe it's common?
Problems sending mail - Gmail Help

This is fundamentally an issue on the ISP side, not the OS side. They've simply blocked that port to servers that are not their own. This is why Google has a workaround.

Dysfunction said:

This is fundamentally an issue on the ISP side, not the OS side. They've simply blocked that port to servers that are not their own. This is why Google has a workaround.

Click to expand...

I originally did think it might have been an ISP issue – however on the same connection I can use my laptop (MacBook Pro) with the exact same settings with zero issues.

I just tried to ping smtp.gmail.com and smtp.me.com and had the same problem (hence it not being a server issue). I tried scanning ports 587 & 25 – and I don't get a response there either. I've updated the OP to reflect this info.

Then you have something, generally a firewall, blocking those outbound ports.

Dysfunction said:

Then you have something, generally a firewall, blocking those outbound ports.

Click to expand...

I assumed this was the case, but I tried turning off all firewalls/security programs (even booting in safe mode) – and this did not resolve the issue.