SMTP Protocol

[Alan Shiers]

Hi there,

I'm putting together a client/server application which involves making
use of SMTP protocol. Basically, a small part of the server application
involves sending email messages (which contain scores on homework
assignments) to students.

I'm making use of a set of classes (NetComponents:
http://www.savarese.org/oro/download...#NetComponents) created
by a third party. They work just fine, but I want to make an
improvement to my application. My ISP's mail server requires a password
whenever I send email messages via my Netscape mail client or in
Outlook. In order to facilitate a smoother interaction, I want my own
server
application to be able to provide my ISP's mail server with the
appropriate authorization password as well.

This particular step doesn't seem to be part of the SMTP protocol, so
how do we provide the password information, and in what format, to the
mail server while waiting for authorization before proceeding to send a
message? There must be some sort of standard procedure of
authenticating passwords on mail accounts to the mail server that I'm
not aware of.

Please advise,

Alan

[Rob Abbe]

Alan,

Supplying a password to connect to a mail server is not unusual... anymore.
Because of SPAM Relaying many ISPs now require a userid and password to
connect to their mail servers. If the libraries you are using don't provide
for a password, they are probably just out dated. Take a look at the Java
Mail API instead, it's pretty easy to use.

Rob

Alan Shiers <ashiers@hfx.eastlink.ca> wrote:
>Hi there,
>
>I'm putting together a client/server application which involves making
>use of SMTP protocol. Basically, a small part of the server application
>involves sending email messages (which contain scores on homework
>assignments) to students.
>
>I'm making use of a set of classes (NetComponents:
>http://www.savarese.org/oro/download...#NetComponents) created
>by a third party. They work just fine, but I want to make an
>improvement to my application. My ISP's mail server requires a password
>whenever I send email messages via my Netscape mail client or in
>Outlook. In order to facilitate a smoother interaction, I want my own
>server
>application to be able to provide my ISP's mail server with the
>appropriate authorization password as well.
>
>This particular step doesn't seem to be part of the SMTP protocol, so
>how do we provide the password information, and in what format, to the
>mail server while waiting for authorization before proceeding to send a
>message? There must be some sort of standard procedure of
>authenticating passwords on mail accounts to the mail server that I'm
>not aware of.
>
>Please advise,
>
>Alan

[vglass]

There are a couple types of authentication to use here. AUTH LOGIN and AUTH CRAM MD5. AUTH LOGIN sends your username/password in plain text whereas CRAM MD5 uses an MD5 hash and an exchanged nonce to authentication which is more secure.