> Why would netscape 4 for Mac choke and not other versions? I think you > may be chasing a strawman there.
AFAIK all versions of Netscape 4 have the problem that if AUTH is offerred, the client must be configured to authenticate. The only reason I mentioned Macs is that Netscape 4 is the most common mail client on Mac OS/8 and OS/9. Many Mac users hate Microsoft so much they won't use OE. Now with OS/X, Apple has its own mail client which was pretty spartan in version 1.1 but is more full-featured in version 1.2. Regarding dictating to a customer base that they must use SMTP AUTH, you must have a captive customer base. If we turned that on one day we would get thousands of angry tech support calls and a sizable percentage would switch to another ISP if only out of spite. When you're in a commodity service business, and all your customers think they know what they're doing even if they don't, and they think it's always your fault even though it usually isn't, then we can't take the attitude "what, are you too stupid to check a box and fill in your username and password?"
