Before attempting to send emails automatically, we will test the basic email setup using a separate page, with hard-coded credentials.

using MailKit.Net.Smtp;
using MailKit.Security;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using MimeKit;
using MimeKit.Text;
using System;


namespace BlazorBirthdayReminders.Data;

    public interface IEmailService
    {
        bool Send(string to, string subject, string body);
    }

    public class EmailService : IEmailService
    {
        private readonly IConfiguration configuration;

        public EmailService(IConfiguration Configuration)
        {
            configuration = Configuration;
        }

        public bool Send(string to, string subject, string body)
        {
            //Get settings from appsettings
            var SmtpHost = configuration["SmtpHost"];
            var SmtpPort = configuration["SmtpPort"];
            var SmtpUserFriendlyName = configuration["SmtpUserFriendlyName"];
            var SmtpUserEmailAddress = configuration["SmtpUserEmailAddress"];
            var SmtpPass = configuration["SmtpPass"];
            // create message
            var email = new MimeMessage();
            email.From.Add(new MailboxAddress(SmtpUserFriendlyName, SmtpUserEmailAddress));
            email.To.Add(new MailboxAddress(to, to));
            email.Subject = subject;
            email.Body = new TextPart(TextFormat.Html) { Text = body };

            try
            {
                // send email
                using var smtp = new SmtpClient();

                smtp.Connect(SmtpHost, Int32.Parse(SmtpPort), SecureSocketOptions.StartTls);
                smtp.Authenticate(SmtpUserEmailAddress, SmtpPass);
                smtp.Send(email);
                smtp.Disconnect(true);

                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }

        }
    }