Gmail on my BlackBerry Classic - why can't the server be reached?

I own a blackberry classic. I kept getting told that gmail could not verify my account settings and I was advised to delete my email set up that was previously working well.

deleting my set up did not help and now I can't set up my account at all. I keep getting the same message:
At this time your email account can't be added. please try again later.

OR

The server for account Imap EmailL Gmail - [smtp.gmail.com, port: 465] can't be reached. the settings might be incorrect or the server could be temporarily offline. Check your settings and try again.

This is frustrating to no end! anyone have any idea how to fix this??

so you go to settings/add/account/advanced/gmail....and you still can't add your account?

make sure you have an smtp username in there as well.