Problems with SSL/TLS encryption, possible setup failure

eaglecoth · Post by **eaglecoth** » February 6th, 2004, 4:38 am

I am using TB 0.4 with windows XP, when I try downloading messages from my Mercury Mail server using Pop3 with SSL/TLS I get the following error log on the server side:

12:26:00.695: Connection from 192.168.0.3, Fri Feb 06 12:26:00 2004<lf>
12:26:00.705: << +OK <2896695.16483@crona.net>, POP3 server ready.<cr><lf>
12:26:00.705: >> €g
12:26:00.715: << -ERR Unrecognized command (try HELP).<cr><lf>

TB tries to connect but does not give a error message, can anyone give me a clue about what might be wrong here?

Secondly, when I try to send messages using TB, connecting to my SMTP gives this error message on the serverside:

12:27:28.892: Connection from 192.168.0.3, Fri Feb 06 12:27:28 2004<lf>
12:27:28.892: << 220 crona.net ESMTP server ready.<cr><lf>
12:27:28.902: >> EHLO crona.net<cr><lf>
12:27:28.932: << 250-crona.net Hello crona.net; ESMTPs are:<cr><lf>250-TIME<cr><lf>
12:27:28.932: << 250-SIZE 0<cr><lf>
12:27:28.942: << 250-8BITMIME<cr><lf>
12:27:28.952: << 250-AUTH=LOGIN<cr><lf>
12:27:28.952: << 250-AUTH CRAM-MD5 LOGIN<cr><lf>
12:27:28.962: << 250-STARTTLS<cr><lf>
12:27:28.972: << 250 HELP<cr><lf>
12:27:29.444: >> QUIT<cr><lf>
12:27:29.464: << 221 crona.net Service closing channel.<cr><lf>
12:27:29.474: --- Connection closed normally at Fri Feb 06 12:27:29 2004. ---
12:27:29.484:

TB gives a error message beginning with:

Sending of mail failed.
An error occured sending mail: Unable to connect to SMTP Server

what seem to be the problem here?

Post by **tanstaafl** » February 6th, 2004, 6:31 am

Thunderbird sent the POP server something it couldn't recognize as a valid command. I would have expected it to be sending authentication info using the USER and PASS command combination or the APOP command at this point. No idea why the command looks like its using 8-bit characters etc.

The SMTP sequence is confusing. My first thought was thunderbird sent the QUIT command to close the connection because it didn't support the authentication methods the server wanted to use. i.e. negotiations failed. However, thunderbird supports one of the proposed authentication methods, so I would have expected it to send AUTH LOGIN rather than QUIT. All I can really tell is that thunderbird decided to close the connection, not the server.

I'd upgrade to the 0.5 milestone when its released. When I first started using thunderbird I couldn't get secure connections to work, those settings worked fine with later builds.

I'd also suggest you back off for the moment and get thunderbird working using unsecure connections. Then I'd experiment with making secure connections using Outlook Express, because its less likely to have compatability problems due to its popularity. Anything I got working with Outlook Express, I'd then try to duplicate with thunderbird.

eaglecoth · Post by **eaglecoth** » February 6th, 2004, 6:53 am

The reason for why I am using TB is because Outlook does not have encryption support for any other than microsoft servers, I was told that TB was better fitted for this type of "e-mailing", however I do get smtp to work with my campus mailserver, this might suggest that there is a configuration faliure on the serverside of the smtp, but when I was at campus I DID manage to send mails trough the smtp using TB on my laptop, I still have no idea how the f**k I got that to work. Like I said before, might be somekind of serverside fault. I am right now also in contact with develeopers of my serverside software, I'll post messages here if they come up with anything...

Post by **tanstaafl** » February 6th, 2004, 7:51 am

Are you sure that Outlook can't use SSL or TLS with a non-microsoft server? I've found university web pages that tell you how to configure Outlook Express to use TLS with unix based email servers. I would have thought its mainly an issue of not enabling Microsoft's Secure Password Authentication (SPA).

bthuree · Post by **bthuree** » February 6th, 2004, 7:49 pm

Also, if you happen to be using a Windows client with Norton Antivirus running:
Make sure you disable Norton Antivirus scanning for Virus on outgoing mails, since it intercepts and removes the STARTTLS command.