I am proposing to create a page:
"SMTP_AUTH"
which collects how to implement SMTP AUTH. SPF is the "killer
application" that requires SMTP AUTH for roaming users so they can send
mail on the road with a "-all" SPF policy for their domain.
There are a number of web pages which attempt to do this, which it can
link to, but all of them dance around the big snag:
Outlook Express (and as far as I can tell Outlook, although I don't have
a copy to test) can't do SMTP AUTH in any useful way. Thunderbird
1.5.0.2, for the record, works out of the box with either STARTTLS, secure
password, or both.
M$ does not support secure passwords - only LOGIN (and NTLM which is
effectively plaintext). LOGIN works on a cleartext connection, but once a
spammer gets your plaintext login packet, your MTA is his open relay. This
means that we must use SSL or STARTTLS. M$ supports STARTTLS on port 25
only, and hotels often block port 25, so that leaves port 465 with SSL
(SMTPS). That works without AUTH. However, if we check "Server requires
authentication", of configure the server to require authentication,
Outlook Express (which we have nicknamed Outhouse) collects a password,
but never authenticates when the connection is encrypted.
The solutions on other web pages either have Outlook using LOGIN over a
cleartext connecting (unacceptable) or using STARTTLS/SSL without
authentication (unacceptable). Maybe I've missed a good solution.
In any case, I'm thinking the page should be on the community section, and
with people trying to actually SMTP AUTH for what it was intended might
find an answer. For many users, telling them to install Thunderbird
solves the problem. It can even import their Outlook address book. But
there are users who depend on the calendar feature of Outlook. Telling
them to use Outlook for calender (which can't share calendars unless they
connect to Exchange - in which we wouldn't be involved anyway) and TB for
email doesn't sit right with them.
--
Stuart D. Gathman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Business Management Systems Inc. Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.
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