Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
tlb7
Contributor - Level 3

>>kaytabor30: Current or potential users of Eudora OSE might like to try Thunderbird as an alternative email program, although of course the user interface and features of the two programs are not the same.

Indeed they are not. I use both Eudora and Thunderbird. I am aware, as I'm sure all of us who use Eudora, that it is old but up until a week or so ago, it worked just fine and other than the intermittent sending problem still works--even under Win7...'-}}--and I will continue to use Eudora as I have for eons until there are insurmountable problems.

As of today (Saturday 10/5/13), I have not had any authentication errors on sending--yesterday, I had one authentication error no additional errors on any other Eudora outgoing mail--so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that whatever the problem was, it has been resolved.

Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
jfadden
Enthusiast - Level 2

Indeed most Eudora users know of, and have tried many other email programs.  We stick with it because in many ways we find it to be a superior program, especially for handling high volumes of mail. (My mail folder is around 11 GB.)   I have 247 email fiters that classify my incoming mail that I would have to recreate if I switched to another program. If someday I have to switch I will, but at the moment I prefer to see if a solution can be found to this issue.

Althought Eudora is an old program it was very conforming to SMTP standards (which haven't changed lately as far as I know) and has worked for me with several different ISPs without any problems.  It is equally as likely that the Verizon servers have departed from the standards in a way that messes with Eudora.  For example the use of port 465 is actually outside the SMTP standard.

I am continuing to have intermittent problems with authentication.  So far I have not had any emails that I could not sent at all --- that would be a serious problem.  But I often have to click send two or three times before succeeding.

I did try to run Wireshark to capture and analyze the packets between Eudora and the server.  So far I have not found a smoking gun.  If anyone who has knowledge equal to or greater than my own about SMTP wants to give that a try it mght provide a clue.


I may try calling Verizon support but I have not had much sucess with them in the past. Indeed when I first set up Eudora with Verizon I called them to find out how and ended up having to tell the tech support guy how to do it (i.e. using the "required, alternate port" setting), which he said was helpful in case he encountered another Eudora user.  Perhaps if we could communicate with whoever runs the SMTP server instead of first line tech support that would help but I doubt that's possible.

My main hope is that the problem disappears in the same mysterious way it started.

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Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
tlb7
Contributor - Level 3

>>jfadden: My main hope is that the problem disappears in the same mysterious way it started.

LOL! Mine too...'-}}

I wonder if we are the canaries in the coal mine and that something really ugly is working its way through Verizon's system that will clobber everyone's email software? My saving grace for the 2 email accounts I use most regularly--neither of which is a Verizon account--is that in a pinch I can use the web-based interface (not fun) to send mail for each of those accounts and fortunately Verizon can't muck with my incoming mail (well...other than losing my broadband connection itself)...

Lastly...they will have to pry Eudora out of my cold, dead hands...'-}}

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Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
kopler888
Newbie

Hi,

I had never said where I was from in this thread.  I am located in the Boston area.  And still having the same intermittant problems.

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Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
tlb7
Contributor - Level 3

>>kopler888: I am located in the Boston area. 

Another east coaster...maybe no one on the west coast uses Eudora? '-}}

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Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
kaytabor30
Enthusiast - Level 3

the 10 million dollar question where is the problem with eudora

1# verizon servers

2#problem only on the east coast

3# no support for eudora

play it off like verizon does. member the google browser issues? verizon swears up n down it's not verizon lol..hint hint

eudora is out of date just like verizon.have fun tlb laughing

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Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
jfadden
Enthusiast - Level 2

I think I may have found an answer.  There appears to be a bug on some versions of Ipswitch Imail SMTP server when handling autnenication using CRAM-MD5..  As described by one Eudora developer:

"When the SMTP client gives the "AUTH CRAM-MD5" command, the IMail server returns a
challenge that is not CRLF-delimited.  Thus, the SMTP client hangs waiting
for the CRLF to signal the end of the challenge.  Eudora does indeed
timeout after a while."

It may be that some Verizon SMTP servers use Imail or have a similar bug. The problem is intermittent because your messages don't always go to to the same server.    If you instruct Eudora not to use CRAM-MD5 it will use another method that will not have this issue.

The solution is to add the following line to Eudora.ini in the section labelled [Settings]:

SmtpAuthBanished=CRAM-MD5


I tried this and the authenticaion errors stopped.  Then I changed the file back and the errors started again.  Returned to the edited INI file and the errors stopped.  I tested with about 15 test mesages each time so I don't think it is coincidence.

If you try this please post whether it works or not for you.

REFERENCES:

http://www.shmoo.com/mail/bugtraq/apr00/msg00017.shtml

http://support.ipswitch.com/kb/IM-20000208-DM02.htm

http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/ini.html

Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
pl
Enthusiast - Level 3

I have been getting SMTP errors for the past few days in the Baltimore-Washington area.  I doubt that it has anything to do with Eudora, which I am not using.  Sometimes it seems to me that Verizon has difficulty running mail servers.  I have had other problems in the past, and they have eventually straightened themselves out.  BTW, I only get an error on the first send try; if I resend immediately after the first fails, it goes through OK.  Otherwise, maybe I would be more upset with things than I am.

Looking in my log file, I am getting the kind of failure you describe, though it seems my program then tries a different authentication scheme and succeeds.  Here is a log excerpt:

 10/8/2013, 09:54:04: SEND  - authenticating (software CRAM-MD5)...
 10/8/2013, 09:54:04: SEND  - Server reports error. The response is: 5.7.0 Unknown AUTH error -1 (Internal authentication error).
 10/8/2013, 09:54:04: SEND  - authenticating (plain)...
 10/8/2013, 09:54:06: SEND  - TLS connection completed successfully
 10/8/2013, 09:54:06: SEND  - connection finished - 1 message(s) sent

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Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

@jfadden wrote:

I think I may have found an answer.  There appears to be a bug on some versions of Ipswitch Imail SMTP server when handling autnenication using CRAM-MD5..  As described by one Eudora developer:

"When the SMTP client gives the "AUTH CRAM-MD5" command, the IMail server returns a
challenge that is not CRLF-delimited.  Thus, the SMTP client hangs waiting
for the CRLF to signal the end of the challenge.  Eudora does indeed
timeout after a while."

It may be that some Verizon SMTP servers use Imail or have a similar bug. The problem is intermittent because your messages don't always go to to the same server.    If you instruct Eudora not to use CRAM-MD5 it will use another method that will not have this issue.

The solution is to add the following line to Eudora.ini in the section labelled [Settings]:

SmtpAuthBanished=CRAM-MD5


I tried this and the authenticaion errors stopped.  Then I changed the file back and the errors started again.  Returned to the edited INI file and the errors stopped.  I tested with about 15 test mesages each time so I don't think it is coincidence.

If you try this please post whether it works or not for you.

REFERENCES:

http://www.shmoo.com/mail/bugtraq/apr00/msg00017.shtml

http://support.ipswitch.com/kb/IM-20000208-DM02.htm

http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/ini.html



Mentioned many times is that passwords need to be plain, in the clear but the connection needs to be ssl/tls.  So the use of cram-md5 should be disabled within Eudora.

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Re: problems sending email - what authentication is needed??
oyster3000
Newbie

@jfadden wrote:

The solution is to add the following line to Eudora.ini in the section labelled [Settings]:

SmtpAuthBanished=CRAM-MD5


Very interesting. That worked for me. I can't believe that Verizon suddenly started using Imail servers from circa 2000, though. The authentication problem didn't appear until 7-10 days ago after using Verizon FiOS and DSL for many years before that without this issue. I wasn't able to telnet in to smtp.verizon.net to see what they are using.

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