I apologise for the rambling nature of this question, please bear with me and I'll provide all the extra info needed for you to stop me going mad from failing at something that looks inherently very straightforward...

I've just installed CakePHP 2.2, and the first thing I've done is add the cakeDC Users plugin. It's all working, apart from sending an email verification when a user registers.

I've tried so many combinations of different things in email.php, that I have now utterly got my knickers in a twist. Whatever I do, when the verification email should be sent, all I get is: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

My email.php currently looks like this:

class EmailConfig {

public $default = array(
    'transport' => 'Smtp',
    'from' => '[email protected]',
    //'charset' => 'utf-8',
    //'headerCharset' => 'utf-8',
);

public $smtp = array(
    'transport' => 'Smtp',
    'from' => array('Blah <[email protected]>' => 'Chimp'),
    'host' => 'ssl://smtp.gmail.com',
    'port' => 465,  
    'timeout' => 30,
    'username' => '[email protected]',
    'password' => 'secret',
    'client' => null,
    'log' => false,
    //'charset' => 'utf-8',
    //'headerCharset' => 'utf-8',
);

public $fast = array(
    'from' => '[email protected]',
    'sender' => null,
    'to' => null,
    'cc' => null,
    'bcc' => null,
    'replyTo' => null,
    'readReceipt' => null,
    'returnPath' => null,
    'messageId' => true,
    'subject' => null,
    'message' => null,
    'headers' => null,
    'viewRender' => null,
    'template' => false,
    'layout' => false,
    'viewVars' => null,
    'attachments' => null,
    'emailFormat' => null,
    'transport' => 'Smtp',
    'host' => 'blah.net',
    'port' => 25,
    'timeout' => 30,
    'username' => 'user',
    'password' => 'secret',
    'client' => null,
    'log' => true,
    //'charset' => 'utf-8',
    //'headerCharset' => 'utf-8',
);

}

How do I get cakeDC Users plugin to just send a non-SMTP email? Or do I have to use, for example, my Gmail details? But, if I do have to go down the SMTP route, what is wrong with the above?

Other info: I'm using the latest version of XAMPP and my PHP install is ssl enabled.