Secure authentication not supported?

[Stevescat]

Just used Thunderbird to get emails - POP3.idnet.com - (first time I've used it since the problems over the weekend) and received an Alert box saying: Mail Server Does Not Support Secure Authentication. Is this correct? I can still get mail by unchecking Use Secure Authentication in Tools/Account Settings/Server Settings, but seems odd.

Steve.

[Gary]

I get mine in OE with out it so should be fine 

[Rik]

Secure authentication is only generally used, Steve, if you are connecting to a 'foreign' SMTP server. If I send mail via the IDNet server, I don't use secure authentication, my IP address does the job instead. When I use my 1&1-hosted mail, though, I do need to use secure authentication.

[Stevescat]

Thanks Guys, just seemed weird that I haven't made any changes to the email settings and used to collect mail OK.

Steve.

[Simon]

Secure authentication is only generally used, Steve, if you are connecting to a 'foreign' SMTP server. If I send mail via the IDNet server, I don't use secure authentication, my IP address does the job instead. When I use my 1&1-hosted mail, though, I do need to use secure authentication.

  I never quite understand the difference between secure authentication, and a secure connection, which Google Mail requires, but I certainly don't use either with IDNet mail.

[Rik]

Thanks Guys, just seemed weird that I haven't made any changes to the email settings and used to collect mail OK.

I don't use TBird, Steve, but all my idnet.com addresses are set up with the 'server requires secure authentication' box unchecked in Outlook. OTOH, for my 1&1 accounts, the opposite is true, and I have to state the auth-smtp server name.

[Rik]

  I never quite understand the difference between secure authentication, and a secure connection, which Google Mail requires, but I certainly don't use either with IDNet mail.

Secure authentication is used when you connect to a mail server outside the ISP's domain, Simon. It's just a matter of signing in, as you would have done in dial-up days (and still do when your router connects). Of course, at one time, we could use any SMTP server we liked, but with the spread of spam, it became universal practice to restrict access to the ISP's SMTP server only, unless you used auth-smtp.

A secure connection is to do with the encryption of data between your machine and the host.

[Simon]

Ah, thanks Rik.  Yes, come to think of it, when I switched my SMTP server to mail.com over the weekend, I had to use secure authentication and provide my password.  I'm not sure that there's any reason to change back to IDNet's SMTP servers for my mail.com account, is there?

[Rik]

None at all, Simon. Use whichever is best for you.

[colirv]

One advantage of Thunderbird is the abilty to have several SMTP servers set up. If one goes down it takes but a couple of seconds to switch to another, either for a particular identity or as the default for all identities. I have IDNet set up on Port 25, our business one (via DNSExit) on Port 26 and my domain one (via PurpleCloud) on Port 587. I reckon it's unlikely all three will be down at once!

[Rik]

I reckon it's unlikely all three will be down at once!

Optimist.