having trouble suppressing traceback on socket.error

[pnewlon]

My python program is calling smtplib.sendmai l which ultimately calls socket.py to open port 25 on the specified host. My issue is that if an error is raised on that attempted socket connection, I can't seem to catch the exception and handle it gracefully - I get the traceback. 'except socket.error:' is being bypassed for some reason that I can't figure out. Thoughts on what I am doing wrong? Thanks!

s = smtplib.SMTP('10.255.208.122')

try:
   s.sendmail(sender, receiver, msg.as_string())
   wrtevt('Success')
   s.quit()
except socket.error:
   errno, errstr = sys.exc_info()[:2]
   if errno == socket.timeout:
     print "There was a timeout"
   else:
     print "There was some other socket error"

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "scaladir.p y", line 57, in <module>
s = smtplib.SMTP('1 0.255.208.122')
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python26\ lib\smtplib.py" , line 239, in __init__
(code, msg) = self.connect(ho st, port)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python26\ lib\smtplib.py" , line 295, in connect
self.sock = self._get_socke t(host, port, self.timeout)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python26\ lib\smtplib.py" , line 273, in _get_socke
t
return socket.create_c onnection((port , host), timeout)
File "C:\Program Files (x86)\Python26\ lib\socket.py", line 561, in create_conn
ection
raise error, msg
socket.error: [Errno 10013] An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forb
idden by its access permissions

[pnewlon]

I ran a sniffer trace and I am not getting the typical 'TCP RST' from a refused connection. I am getting an ICMP type 3 code 10 - destination unreachable, host administrativel y prohibited.

[Rabbit]

Please use code tags when posting code or formatted data.

The reason you are unable to trap the error is because the error is on line 1, outside of your try block.

[pnewlon]

Sorry about that, I will do so!

The address in line 1 does not have an SMTP server running, I am testing my code for error trapping when the server won't respond. If I change the IP address to one that is running an SMTP server, then the code runs fine.

[Rabbit]

Exactly. That's why it's erroring out and not being trapped.

[pnewlon]

So there is no graceful way to prevent the program from blowing up when an attempt is made using smtplib to connect on port 25 to a device that has no listener on that port?

[Rabbit]

There is. Put your code that's causing the error in the try block.

[pnewlon]

Perfect, that worked! Thank you for your assistance!

[Rabbit]

No problem, good luck with the rest of your project.