I have my Blue Iris 5 setup working great. But I wanted to restrict the internet access to/from the PC that is running BI5.

I currently log into the BI computer with remote desktop from my many computers through out the house and from my mobile device via a VPN application on my phone and the BI mobile app. All was working fine and I was getting my text notification (SMS via email from BI).

When I restricted the internet access I did it in the Windows 10 firewall on the BI computer. Then I set up a rule to allow the BI5 software and remote desktop access.

The blue iris is running and I can connect via remote access from any computer and the mobile app still works via my mobile VPN connection as it was previously but I can't get the text notifications anymore.

Does anyone know what I need to do in windows firewall on my Windows 10 BI computer to allow it to send out the emails via SMTP like before. None of that was changed so I know it is the firewall blocking the connection because you cannot use that computer now to access the internet.

I have created an outbound rule to allow ports 25, 465, and 587.

Anyone know what I need to open in the firewall to allow it to work. Thanks!

I would imagine the actual SMTP connection is using one of those ports you listed (I'm not using email alerting to confirm), most likely tcp/25 and/or tcp/587. Could you share your SMTP settings (not any login credentials of course) as that might make it a bit easier.

The first thought that came to mind is wondering how locked down Windows FW is. If it's not permitting outbound web (no issue with that) it sounds pretty locked down. Is it possible DNS (udp/53) isn't permitted and that the system simply can't resolve the name of the SMTP server?

If your BI system has the Telnet Client installed (I always enable it - NOT the telnet server, totally different!!!) you could try some CLI testing to find where it's breaking.

nslookup MAILSERVER.COM
(should return the IP address of the mail server)

telnet MAILSERVER.COM 25 <- could be a different port depending on your config
(should return -something-, it could vary but a long pause and nothing is a broken/blocked connection)

I've locked down my firewall as well in Nortion.

To pass SMTp servers...
Add the smtp server names you've added in BI 'Email Servers' settings, to the firewall rules...
- smtp.comcast.net
- smtp.gmail.com

Thanks for the replies. I ran out of time because I was leaving for a few days and didn't want to leave without my notifications working so I set the firewall back to defaults and it immediately began to work. I did try the telnet and it wasn't resolving so when I start back working on this I will take a look at the DNS to make sure it can resolve the smtp addresses.

Thanks!