smtpmail and starttls

[Hadron Quark]

I've been googling for ages now and am still unable to get gnus talking
to gmail's smtp server. I need to pass off sending of emails to an
external smtp because my dynamic IP gets black listed as a mail source
for the likes of hotmail which doesnt trust non permanent smtp servers.

if anyone has this working from an ubuntu/linus setup I would love to
see your .gnus.el entries and to hear how you got it working.

Google indicates that there are a lot of threads with people having or
had had the same problems.

I just get an SMTP protocol error when I send a mail.

Here is what Ihave and is no different from the solutions offered to
others before.

(And I have installed "starttls").

;; Sending mail
(setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
(setq smtpmail-starttls-credentials '(("smtp.gmail.com" 587 nil nil)))
(setq smtpmail-default-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com")
(setq smtpmail-smtp-server "smtp.gmail.com")
(setq smtpmail-auth-credentials '(("smtp.gmail.com" 587
"serverid" "pwd")))
(setq smtpmail-smtp-service 587)


Let me know what logs you need to see and how to obtain them if you
think you might be able to help.