219840 - Can't send email to SSL enabled SMTP server

Status: RESOLVED EXPIRED

(MailNews Core :: Networking: SMTP, defect)

Description

[Per-Olof Litby]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030901
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030901

I'm using a Sun ONE Messaging Server as IMAP and SMTP server.  Receiving mail
via SSL IMAP works fine, as well as sending mail wihtout SSL enabled. But when I
try to send messages via SSL to the SMTP server, I get the message "Sending of
message failed. An error occurred sending mail: Unable to connect to SMTP server
xxx.xxx.xxx. Please verify that your Mail/News account settings...".
This problem is NOT present in Mozilla for LINUX which I'm also using with the
exact same mail servers with identical settings.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try to send an e-mail to an SSL enabled  SMTP server on port 25
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
Error message as quoted above.

Expected Results:  
Sent the message and reported a successful send.

Comment 1

[Jo Hermans]

I assume you are already using the correct settings for your SMTP-connection :
see Mail Account Settins, Outgoing SMTP-server (at the bottom !). The 'Use
Secrute Connection' in the Server Settings of the account, only applies for the
IMAP-server, not for SMTP.

If you have done this, then it might be a dupe of bug 135357. See bug 135357
comment 15 and 33. I'm duping this, please reopen if you don't agree.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 135357 ***

Comment 2

[Christian Eyrich]

Reporter says "This problem is NOT present in Mozilla for LINUX". SMTP over SSL
isn't present on Mozilla for Linux too. And the he wants to do SMTP on port 25.
This doesn't look like bug 135357.

Comment 3

[Jo Hermans]

Ok, reopened then. But note that we don't support SMTP-over-SSL yet (usually
port 465). SMPT with STARTTLS (on port 25) should work though.

Reporter, can you try this :

telnet your.mail.server 25
ehlo your.mail.server
starttls

Do you get the following error-message back ?

500 5.5.1 Command unrecognized: "starttls"

Comment 4

[Blaine Simpson]

I'm using Thunderbird on Linux.  After I turn on outgoing SSL, if I attemtp to
send any email, it hangs forever.  Doesn't matter if certificate is good or bad,
or even if the destination is really running SSL or not.  The TCP connection is
made but Thunderbird doesn't send anything to it.

I know that my server and cert are good because they work for other clients and
the same cert is are used successfully by Firebird to access a web site.

If "we don't support SMTP-over-SSL yet", then why does the "Outgoing Server
(SMTP) Settings" screen have "Use Secure Connection (SSL)" buttons?

I will test with Mozilla Mail on Linux and/or Windows shortly.

Comment 5

[Christian Eyrich]

Blain, you didn't write what version you're using.

> If "we don't support SMTP-over-SSL yet", then why does the "Outgoing Server
> (SMTP) Settings" screen have "Use Secure Connection (SSL)" buttons?

The problem is that "SSL" means an encrypted connection. But there are two ways
to start such a connection. The one (real standard) way is the STARTTLS
mechanism, the other is SSL-wrapped SMTP. The old "Use Secure Connection (SSL)"
refered to STARTTLS - that's confusing.
Since bug 135357 is closed now we are able of doing both. The best would be you
check out a Mozilla build from the 1.6 trunk or Thunderbird from the 0.4 trunk.

These are state of the art and it will be more easy to track down the problem
(if it still exists).

Comment 6

[Blaine Simpson]

Sweet success!!

I had already downloaded and built from CVS when I read your new post.  I
had been using TBird 0.3 when I made that first post.  I figured out the
difference between wrapped SSL and STARTTLS by myself over the past 12 hours,
but it's good to hear that my conclusions were correct.

Works with "SSL" selected in the new encryption selection box.  You know,
that "TLS" option is misleading.  It is not just "TLS", but the STARTTLS
method that it is selecting.  I can wrap the entire session in TLS just
like I can with SSL, and that is more strictly "TLS" than your implementation
of the STARTTLS variant (which is partially not TLS).  If anybody gives a
damned, I think the "TLS" buttons should be renamed to "STARTTLS" or 
"TLS within SMTP" or something more accurate.

Since my current authentication is a Java SSL proxy wrapper around the submit
port, I need the SSL-wrapped SMTP method right now.  I'm leading a dev project
for an ESMTP server, though ( http://admc.com/jamama ), and I'll definitely
implement STARTTLS when things get that far along.


Thanks so much Christian!

Comment 7

[Christian Eyrich]

No problem Blaine.
You're right that the options should have other names. The problem is that
people (not in Mozilla but everywhere) mixing the encryption algorithm with the
mechanism of the protocol. I prefer STARTTLS over TLS too, but SSL should also
be something else to be precisely.
If you've some free time you can read the whole thread in bug 135357.

Comment 8

[Jo Hermans]

see bug 185662

Comment 9

[Jo Hermans]

*** Bug 230519 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Doug Wright]

*** Bug 239073 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
Firefox:     http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/releases/1.5beta1.html
Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 12

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.