Sending email in .NET through Gmail

Be sure to use System.Net.Mail, not the deprecated System.Web.Mail. Doing SSL with System.Web.Mail is a gross mess of hacky extensions.

using System.Net;
using System.Net.Mail;

var fromAddress = new MailAddress("from@gmail.com", "From Name");
var toAddress = new MailAddress("to@example.com", "To Name");
const string fromPassword = "fromPassword";
const string subject = "Subject";
const string body = "Body";

var smtp = new SmtpClient
{
    Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
    Port = 587,
    EnableSsl = true,
    DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network,
    UseDefaultCredentials = false,
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential(fromAddress.Address, fromPassword)
};
using (var message = new MailMessage(fromAddress, toAddress)
{
    Subject = subject,
    Body = body
})
{
    smtp.Send(message);
}

Additionally go to the Google Account > Security page and look at the Signing in to Google > 2-Step Verification setting.

• If it is enabled, then you have to generate a password allowing .NET to bypass the 2-Step Verification. To do this, click on Signing in to Google > App passwords, select app = Mail, and device = Windows Computer, and finally generate the password. Use the generated password in the fromPassword constant instead of your standard Gmail password.
• If it is disabled, then you have to turn on Less secure app access, which is not recommended! So better enable the 2-Step verification.

The above answer doesn't work. You have to set DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network or it will come back with a "client was not authenticated" error. Also it's always a good idea to put a timeout.

Revised code:

using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Net;

var fromAddress = new MailAddress("from@gmail.com", "From Name");
var toAddress = new MailAddress("to@yahoo.com", "To Name");
const string fromPassword = "password";
const string subject = "test";
const string body = "Hey now!!";

var smtp = new SmtpClient
{
    Host = "smtp.gmail.com",
    Port = 587,
    EnableSsl = true,
    DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.Network,
    Credentials = new NetworkCredential(fromAddress.Address, fromPassword),
    Timeout = 20000
};
using (var message = new MailMessage(fromAddress, toAddress)
{
    Subject = subject,
    Body = body
})
{
    smtp.Send(message);
}

To avoid security issues in Gmail, you should generate an app password first from your Gmail settings and you can use this password instead of a real password to send an email even if you use two steps verification.

You can try Mailkit. It gives you better and advance functionality for send mail. You can find more from this Here is an example

    MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage();
    message.From.Add(new MailboxAddress("FromName", "YOU_FROM_ADDRESS@gmail.com"));
    message.To.Add(new MailboxAddress("ToName", "YOU_TO_ADDRESS@gmail.com"));
    message.Subject = "MyEmailSubject";

    message.Body = new TextPart("plain")
    {
        Text = @"MyEmailBodyOnlyTextPart"
    };

    using (var client = new SmtpClient())
    {
        client.Connect("SERVER", 25); // 25 is port you can change accordingly

        // Note: since we don't have an OAuth2 token, disable
        // the XOAUTH2 authentication mechanism.
        client.AuthenticationMechanisms.Remove("XOAUTH2");

        // Note: only needed if the SMTP server requires authentication
        client.Authenticate("YOUR_USER_NAME", "YOUR_PASSWORD");

        client.Send(message);
        client.Disconnect(true);
    }

This is no longer supported incase you are trying to do this now.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6010255?hl=en&visit_id=637960864118404117-800836189&p=less-secure-apps&rd=1#zippy=

If your Google password doesn't work, you may need to create an app-specific password for Gmail on Google. https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833?hl=en