418945 - SMTP AUTH not supported: behavior changed unacceptably

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Thunderbird :: Security, defect)

Description

[Richard Hitt]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080208 Fedora/2.0.0.12-1.fc8 Firefox/2.0.0.12
Build Identifier: version 3.0a1pre (2008022103)

I had been using thunderbird-2.0.0.9-1.fc8 and was sending mail fine.  I began trying 2008022103 and this failure message appeared when I attempted to send mail:

Sending of message failed.
An error occurred sending mail: Unable to authenticate to SMTP server mail.pacbell.net. It does not support authentication (SMTP-AUTH) but you have chosen to use authentication. Uncheck 'Use name and password' for that server or contact your service provider.

I searched all over for the referenced checkbox and it was nowhere to be found.

I finally had to edit prefs.js and modify the requisite line so that it appeared thus:
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp1.auth_method", 0);
(it had been "..., 1")

Then when I restarted thunderbird 2008022103 my mail worked correctly.  (Separately I will post a bug saying that the draft I had saved contained no text but should have.)

Acceptable solutions would be something like one of the following:
1. Revert the behavior to that of the previous thunderbird
2. Offer at the time of the message to change the smtp auth choice, and don't reference any check box at all.
3. Specify exactly what sequence should be used to find that mysterious checkbox, for example, something like Edit -> Preferences -> blahblah or perhaps [e-mail] -> View settings for this account -> blahblah
or perhaps--- Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Config Editor -> "I'll be careful, I promise!" -> auth ---- and then change the 1 to a 0.

I vote for number 2, assuming that this whole issue amounts to a fix for good reason which would be subverted by choosing option #1.  Otherwise, I vote for number 1.  I bet you *will* get a lot of flak on this.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compose maila
2. Click "Send"

Actual Results:  
This alert box appears:
Sending of message failed.
An error occurred sending mail: Unable to authenticate to SMTP server mail.pacbell.net. It does not support authentication (SMTP-AUTH) but you have chosen to use authentication. Uncheck 'Use name and password' for that server or contact your service provider.


Expected Results:  
Mail should have been sent.  At worst, the alert box should have been more helpful and offered to uncheck 'Use name and password'.

I will file a subsequent bug that shows that the "Save" of composed mail following the above "Steps to reproduce" and "Actual results" failed to save the body of the  email.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

This should be from bug 311657, IIRC. 

Comment 2

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

(In reply to comment #0)
> I searched all over for the referenced checkbox and it was nowhere to be found.

[Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1pre) Gecko/2008062003 Thunderbird/3.0a2pre] (nightly) (W2Ksp4)

Tools > Account Settings... > Outgoing Server (SMTP) > [your server] > Edit...

> Acceptable solutions would be something like one of the following:
> 1. Revert the behavior to that of the previous thunderbird

Was this error/bug fixed by bug 311657 (or bug 440712) ?

> the alert box should have been more
> helpful and offered to uncheck 'Use name and password'.

That would be a RequestForEnhancement.

Comment 3

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Was this error/bug fixed by bug 311657 

No, it think what is reported is kind of "caused" by bug 311657.

Comment 4

[Richard Hitt]

I submitted this bug.  I am now inclined to think it was "user error"; but no, there's semantic confusion going on, and here's my argument that this is so.

  I have sufficient email accounts, added directories, etc, that my Edit -> Account Settings window's scroll box has a vertical scroll bar and the "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" line was below the bottom of the box.  I'm inclined to think now that I didn't notice the scrollbar and/or that my brain somehow reasonably assumed that scrolling would have uncovered merely more of what I saw, namely, yet more email accounts and their subdirectories.

So I argue that the line "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" does not fit semantically with the rest of the contents of that Account Settings scrollbox and should be moved for reasons of human factors, semantics, better visibility, <waves hands>.

A good place to move that line to would be simply the main part of the "Account Settings" box, don't you think?

And yet, you say, it's already there!  But no, the outgoing server is choosable but not editable in the main part of the box.  But hmm, in the main part, it looks like Outgoing Server is specifiable differently for my different email accounts.  But in the scrollbox, it looks like Outgoing Server is specifiable only once, and thus the one Server would apply for all the Accounts.  Which is it ???

Assuming one Outgoing Server applies for all Accounts, I suggest you do this:  (1) Remove "Outgoing Server" from the scrollbox at the left; (2) Remove "Outgoing Server" from the main Account Settings box, since it's not really account-associated, is it?  (3) Add Outgoing Server somehow to Edit -> Preferences or (perish forfend) add a line Edit -> Outgoing Server.

But assuming multiple Outgoing Servers, possibly a different one for each Account, I suggest you do this:  (1) Remove "Outgoing Server" from the scrollbox at the left of the "Account Settings" window, and (2) Add editability to the "Outgoing Server" line in the main section of this window.

For a more minimal change, in either case, you could (1) Leave the scrollbar as it is, with Outgoing Server at the bottom, even though it's anomalous; and (2) Add an Edit button to the main section's "Outgoing Server" chooser.

I wouldn't have had to learn about all this stuff though if there hadn't been that behavior change at 2008022103 that caused my initial problem.  Still, it's wrong to have "Outgoing Server (SMTP)" at the bottom of that accounts scrollbox, since "Outgoing Server" is not an Account.

Comment 6

[David Ascher (:davida)]

It sounds like this bug should be morphed into a bug about UI of Outgoing Server.