Unhelpful error mesage

[pbiss]

I run a mail server with user authentication required to relay mail to remote destinations.

If the Outgoing Server (SMTP) setting in SeaMonkey is configured without a user name,
the following error message is displayed on trying to send.
>Sending of the message failed.
>The message could not be sent using Outgoing server (SMTP) myserver.mylocal.domain for an unknown reason.
>Please verify that your Outgoing server (SMTP) settings are correct and try again.

The "unknown reason" sounds lame. Surely it is possible to detect a missing user name!
Even if this cannot be ascertained with absolute certainty,
an error message with words like probably, suspected or a question mark
would minimise time lost in debugging the mistake.

Aren't error messages supposed to try and be helpful?

[DanRaisch]

Moving to SeaMonkey Support.

[makaiguy]

Your mail client can only relay to you any error messages it receives from the mail server.

Many (most?) servers don't even check the user name until after the password has been received as well, then they just look for the name/password combination. Some are sophisticated enough to actually send a different error message if the username is not recognized, but many just send a generic name/password not recognized error message.

Some may just send an error code without giving text relating to the nature of the failure at all.

Have you had a look at your server to see what sort of error messages IT sends?

[pbiss]

The server logs no particular error, just drops the connection.

This, however, is not the end of the story.

SM(/Tbird) shows User Name: <Not specified> and can therefore suspect that something is wrong in this department.
Why not say so?

Otherwise, it's a bit like a doctor making a referral without complete diagnostic information.