Your Laravel application works on XAMPP, but after deploying it to cPanel, the first password reset email fails with Connection could not be established with host . Sometimes you get 535 Incorrect authentication data , Expected response code "250" but got code "530" , or an SSL certificate verification error.

If Laravel SMTP on cPanel is failing, the quickest fix is to check the outgoing mail server shown in cPanel, match the SMTP port with the correct encryption scheme, confirm the mailbox credentials and clear Laravel's cached configuration.

Most SMTP failures fall into one of five areas: connectivity, encryption, authentication, configuration or message delivery. The actual error tells you which one to investigate.

Quick answer: Open cPanel → Email Accounts → Connect Devices , locate the outgoing SMTP hostname, and use the secure settings provided for your mailbox. For a typical modern Laravel installation, use port 465 with MAIL_SCHEME=smtps , or port 587 with MAIL_SCHEME=smtp and STARTTLS.…