230766 - MailNews keeps asking for SMTP password for sending same Email

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Networking: SMTP, defect)

Description

[Christian J. Callsen]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.6b) Gecko/20040102 Firebird/0.7+
Build Identifier: Thunderbird 0.5a 20040105

This is a split-off from bug 215300. I am seeing a *very* persistent problem
whereby MailNews/SMTP keeps prompting for a password when I attempt to send an
Email. This is using plain (non-secure) SMTP connections, to a Microsoft
Exchange SMTP server. It is reproducible on TBird 0.4 and up. I seem to recall
not having seen this before early December, 2003.

Usually I'm asked 2-3 times for each Email I send, but sometimes it's
significantly more (I've had up to 10 times). 

I'll attempt to attach/transfer the SMTP log files I took from bug 215300.

I'm tempted to make this "Major" but since it *is* working, I'll leave it Normal.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Type Email (reply or new Email)
2. Click "send" or hit CTRL-Enter to send Email.

Actual Results:  
1. Popup window appears that asks for password. Type it in, and check "remember
password". 
2. Click ok.
3. Goto 1.


Expected Results:  
Ask for password at most once. I checked after getting a successful transmission
that the password is properly remembered in the password manager. That, however,
doesn't help a bit.

Comment 1

[Christian J. Callsen]

Attachment: SMTP log of 2 attempts to send email with failed logins

I sent 2 emails where the SMTP password was requested several times (5 times,
the first go). Each time I entered the password *and* checked "remember
password" in the password dialog. After sending the Email the password manager
has an entry for the password. This is very reproducible. I've configured NO
SSL/TLS/??? - just plain connection to port 25. I'm talking to an MS Exchange
server using SMTP.
This is with TBird 0.5a 20040105, Windows 2000 SP3.

Comment 2

[Christian Eyrich]

Hm, so, the problem with our internal logging is, that because of privacy we
don't log the password (and in your case even not the username). So the log
isn't very helpful here. It can be Mozilla sends the wrong pw sometimes and it
can be the server to hiccup sometimes.

In this case I allways ask for a log of a independent packet sniffer like
ethereal or tcpdump. Creating these requires more work and posting the log here
would reveal your login credentials.
So I suggest you, to cantact me by mail if you wanna try it with one of the
mentioned programs.

Comment 3

[Christian J. Callsen]

Hm, we might have the culprit. It seems to turn out that the SMTP Exchange
server wants "USERNAME\DOMAINNAME" (without quotes) as the username when sending
Email. This, at least, isn't rejected and does seem to work.

It might be worth mentioning somewhere in the SMTP setup, when talking to
exchange SMTP servers.

Please consider this as "WORKSFORME". I'll reopen if it's not.

Comment 4

[Christian Eyrich]

Closing as WFM because of reporters comment.

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

To Comment #3 From Christian J. Callsen :

Even if setting "USERNAME\DOMAINNAME" in username will not cause password
promting problem any more, different failure count in several mail sending
attemt was very funny phenomenon.
I've found an interesting bug, Bug 231133, for which Christian Eyrich has
proposed a patch.
If searching of supported authentication mechanisms is done to other than AUTH
responce, your case is possible and understandable.

Anyway, Callsen, congraturations for "WORKSFORME" on your long term problem.