CRAM-MD5 Authentication

[justinhill]

Would anyone be able to tell me if it's possible to get Catalog to use CRAM-MD5 authentication with the SMTP server? I'd like to use my own mail server but it's set to only accept this type of authentication and I don't want to switch anything else on.

Thanks
Justin

[NormanRouxel]

If no-one else can help, you may have to look in the Perl and amend it yourself. File ActinicSMTPAuth.pm in your Site folder is the one.

[justinhill]

Thanks for pointing me there, Norman. I've opened the file and the phrase 'CRAM-MD5' does appear in it - so that's a start! Now I've just got to try and understand the thing...

[NormanRouxel]

Try it and see. I read the SMTP AUth RFC's some time ago and I recall that there's a conversation between the server and the client, where the server tells the client which auth methods it will accept and the client then chooses one and attempts to use it.

[justinhill]

Actually, skimming through it it looks as if it should support cram-md5 as well as digest and the ones you'd never use, by trying one after another. Good stuff.

So, my real trouble is that I'm loading the test site onto an ISP's server for the first time (a Linux package at Easyspace) and something's obviously awry before we even get to this point. The email test fails with an authentication failure but now I realise that whether I do the test, or fill the 'contact us' form, or create an order (i.e. forcing an email) on the uploaded site, there's no sign of an attempted login being either accepted or refused in my mail server logs. There are other signs of trouble too; the site hangs just before displaying the order complete page. Sometimes it gets there after a minute, sometimes it reports a catch-all (error 500).

And yes I've tried to talk to Easyspace...

[leehack]

Most people seem to be using an IP address for SMTP to solve their easyspace SMTP problems.

[justinhill]

most people? easyspace problems? Until I saw your post I hadn't searched the forum for 'easyspace'.

......Now I see.

And now I'm more determined to use my own mail server. However, I am sure now that there's something wrong other than the mail server setup. I'm getting 'internal error' responses from the easyspace server. Maybe they have a problem today that's nothing to do with me, and I just chose the wrong day to configure Catalog for Easyspace. I'll start again tomorrow.

[It's like when years ago I bought my first 'radio controlled' wall clock. It came by post and arrived on a Tuesday. Once I'd got it out of the box and put it on the wall I noticed it wasn't setting itself to the right time. Having got no response from the supplier I wasted hours but eventually got through to Rugby, where a bored and patronising engineer told me that the time signal was always shut down on the first Tuesday of the month for maintenance and surely everybody knew that. Great timing, huh?]

[buspassjohn]

Damn, I just put the Ikea kitchen clock in the bin! Guess it must be Tuesday!

[justinhill]

I'm doing better now with SMTP and Easyspace; one thing I have found is that if I make changes to the SMTP server and/or path to Perl shell, the 'test' may well fail - but if I ignore that and upload the site then not only does it work but subsequently the test will pass as well.

Now I know that I'm going to trying and get it to use my server again.