Unable to connect with TLS encryption with Laravel 5.5 Swiftmailer - laravel

Question

I am trying to send a mail using the Laravel inbuilt swift mailer but I keep getting the "Unable to connect with TLS encryption" error everytime.
Below is my .env file:
MAIL_DRIVER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp.office365.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=myemailaddress
MAIL_PASSWORD=mypassword
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
My config/mail.php file is below:
'driver' => env('MAIL_DRIVER', 'smtp'),
'host' => env('MAIL_HOST', 'smtp.office365.com'),
'port' => env('MAIL_PORT', 587),
'from' => [
'address' => env('MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS', 'myemailaddress'),
'name' => env('MAIL_FROM_NAME', ''),
],
'encryption' => env('MAIL_ENCRYPTION', 'tls'),
'username' => env('MAIL_USERNAME','myemailaddress'),
'password' => env('MAIL_PASSWORD','mypassword'),
'sendmail' => '/usr/sbin/sendmail -bs',
'markdown' => [
'theme' => 'default',
'paths' => [
resource_path('views/vendor/mail'),
],
],
];
My controller where I initiate the mail sending is below:
if ($loan->save()) {
$name = staff::select('staff_name')->where('staff_id','=',$id)->first();
$data = array(
'Name' => $name,
'Amount' => $request->input('amount'),
'Tenor' => $request->input('tenor'),
'Purpose' => $request->input('purpose')
);
Mail::send('emails.loanrequest', $data, function($message){
$message->from('myaddress');
$message->to('myemailaddress');
$message->subject('New Loan Request');
});
}
Any help that would make this work would be appreciated. Thanks..

Answer 1

I had a similar problem trying to send an email using Laravel. Finally, I discovered that the problem was my antivirus (Avast in my case) software, blocking TLS calls for me. I write this because maybe it could be helpful to someone.

Answer 2

Apparently, It was my proxy server that was blocking my connection. Once I switched my connection, it worked..