[AktiviX-discuss] using ssl with a mac client ('mail')

[Ian Gregory]

On Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 01:38:07AM +0100, ana wrote:
>
>(including maqui because i'm not sure if he's subscribed to this list)
>
>On Thu, 25 Sep 2008, Ian Gregory wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 08:44:50PM +0100, maqui wrote:
>> 
>> > Basically I'm using a mac client for my mails called 'mail'. In the 
>> > preferences i got ssl ticked for incoming mail using port 995 and it 
>> > works to receive mails. But in the outgoing preferences if i select 
>> > 'springnight.burngreave.net' as the outgoing mail server, then it only 
>> > works (i can send and receive mails) if i do it between aktivix 
>> > addresses, but if i send to non aktivix addresses, then it doesn't work 
>> > and it says that an "error occurred".
>> 
>> And a good thing too, otherwise springnight would soon be blacklisted as 
>> an open relay. Springnight only accepts email to email addresses it is 
>> responsible for, like aktivix ones. It might handle authenticated SMTP, 
>> in which case if you want to use it for your outgoing server you will 
>> need to configure your system to authenticate with an authorised 
>> username and password.
>> 
>
> Hang on there - maqi has got an authorised username and password!

Well obviously he has one for reading email sent to him at his aktivix 
account. I don't know whether springnight supports authenticated SMTP 
for sending email or (assuming it does) whether aktivix email 
username/password pairs are valid for authenticating, or whether maqi 
has configured Mail to use authenticated SMTP for outgoing mail. These 
could all possibly be reasons why he gets an error when trying to send.
Of course it could be something else entirely that I have not thought 
of.

I send all my email out through my ISP. That means I don't need to 
authenticate, which means that I transmit no username/password to the 
SMTP server, which means I don't need to use SSL to protect a 
username/password. Admittedly my ISP could be storing/monitoring my 
email, but if anything needs to be secret I use GnuPG for strong 
end-to-end encryption so that does not really concern me.

Ian

-- 
Ian Gregory
http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/