[X-Unix] speaking of passwords...

[James Bucanek]

Stephen Jonke wrote on Wednesday, April 6, 2005:

>
>On Apr 5, 2005, at 8:47 PM, Dennis Fazio wrote:
>> Most mail servers do not require authentication to send mail (via 
>> SMTP); they will forward mail from all clients within its "realm" of 
>> legitimate addresses (usually all of the ISPs customers).
>
>Ah - in the case .Mac mail, of course, there is no known legitimate 
>addresses of customers - .Mac isn't an ISP. Thus why I get prompted for 
>a password when sending email via it (if the keychain is locked.)

All of this depends entirely on how you have your mail account configured.  You may, or may not, be sending all mail via your ISP's SMTP server.  You may, or may not, be using .Mac's SMTP server.  Your ISP may, or may not, allow you to contact an external SMTP on port 25.  You may, or may not, be using .Mac's alternate SMTP port (5xx something?).  Your ISP's SMTP server may, or may not, requires SMTP Auth.  I do believe that the .Mac SMTP server do require SMTP Auth.  So if you are sending mail using the .Mac servers, Mail will need a password.

So all of these questions can be answered by simply knowing what your configuration is and what limits have been imposed by your ISP.

-- 
James Bucanek <mailto:privatereply at gloaming.com>