Ok, yes. doing telnet to the ip address works.
Having changed the env file to the following
MAIL_HOST=10.0.#.#
and putting " in the password as opposed to ’ is helping me move forward
New error message that comes from that is as follow:
*stream_socket_enable_crypto(): SSL operation failed with code 1. Open SSL Error message error:1416F086:SSL routine:tls_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed