>>It could however, be an OS 8.1 problem. OS 9.x changed the version of >>Open Transport and TCP/IP, and EarthLink might require the older versions >>of those to use AUTH, but that's just speculation on my part.
No the changes in OT were at a lower layer than SMTP runs on. So changing OT versions will have no effect on if SMTP Auth is needed (in fact, the mail server wouldn't even be able to tell what version of OT you are running) >I used to access Earthlink for my Mindspring account and that too was >without any auth. I doubt that Earthlink would use authentication with >and older OS and not for a newer one. Something else is going on. Mindspring was bought by earthlink a long time ago. Long before SMTP Authentication was an issue. So connecting to Mindspring was the same as connecting to Earthlink. My guess is, Earthlink still does some degree of IP Authentication. Their mail servers probably have a list of known IP addresses that are guarenteed to be Earthlink customers, and if you are using one of those addresses, then Auth is not required. The reason why some people may still need to authenticate even when connected as an Earthlink customer is probably due to subleasing service from other carriers. That is fairly common these days as it is cheaper then trying to own it all yourself. Years ago, it wasn't really a choice as there just weren't enough carriers out there, so often the big dogs like Earthlink had to build their own network. These days, there are thousands of little guys, and dozens of big guys, so it becomes cheaper for Earthlink to sell off lesser used portions of their network to other providers and then sublease service back from them or another provider in the area. In the cases of subleased regions, Earthlink may not be able to easily and reliably know that the IP address connecting to their server is in fact in use by an Earthlink customer. So they won't list those IP address ranges as "known good", and thus those people end up having to use SMTP Authentication in order to send email. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
