Mandrill & SMTP in E-Mail System Configuration

I am trying to use Mandrill to send all emails generated by aMember to users

First, I tested sending via my server (localhost) with SMTP and it works!

Then, I tried using Mandrill SMTP credentials and it gives me this error:
"Error during e-mail sending: Zend_Mail_Protocol_Exception:Connection timed out"

tried different SMTP Security option, ports but the results are the same.

Is there something I am messing?
Have anyone tried Mandrill or SendGrid ...etc with aMember v4?

Thank you for any reply to this!
Essam

update

I was in touch with aMember support and they were very helpful

The problem was a server side, after my server providers opened the appropriate ports everythinh worked smoothly!

Unfortunately most shared hosting close SMTP doors.

Hi Guys

I had the same problem with Mandrill but found out the port can also be set at 2525 instead of 587 and with that port all works for me

Darren

Use port 465 with SSL option enable. This port is open on all shared hosts and ISP's.

Let me know if this works for anyone.

Louis Kennedy

I switched from Mandrill to SendGrid. It was much easier to setup with aMember and working nicely so far.