[mew-int 2625] Trouble with an SSL SMTP connection.

[Ian Grant]

Hi List,

There is some general interest in getting mew to work in this
institution. I am trying to get it talking to an SMTP server using SSL
and authenticating with a password. The service provider's instructions
are as follows:

For sending mail:
    * The name of the SMTP server should be smtp.hermes.cam.ac.uk
    * You will also need to find settings for SMTP AUTH
(authentication). Again, you are likely to find the phrases SSL or
STARTTLS used and should use the equvalent of Required, STARTTLS. In
most mail programs you will also need to enter your CRSid (e.g. spqr9)
in a User ID field. If you have a port setting for SMTP change this
from 25 to 587 (if port 587 does not work, change the setting to 465
instead).

My ~/.emacs is as below. The error I get in the logs is: 

2008/10/31 15:10:57 id=<20081031.151057.193680949.ig206 at example.com>
server=smtp.hermes.cam.ac.uk:smtp SSL/TLS recipients=ig206 at example.com
status=(SMTP PLAIN password is wrong!)

I have tried setting mew-smtp-auth-plain-authorize-id as below, but
also with no joy.

I am pretty certain that I am entering the correct password: I have
reconfigured another MUA using the same password and been able to
successfully send mail.

I have tried looking at the code but what I don't understand is how mew
determines what sort of SMTP auth to use, i.e. PLAIN, LOGIN, MD5 etc.
Is that determined just by the protocol or is there a way to set a
variable and try other methods? Also, is there a way to log the actual
transcript of the SMTP session?

(autoload 'mew "mew" nil t)
(autoload 'mew-send "mew" nil t)

;; Optional setup (Read Mail menu for Emacs 21):
(if (boundp 'read-mail-command)
    (setq read-mail-command 'mew))

    ;; Optional setup (e.g. C-xm for sending a message):
    (autoload 'mew-user-agent-compose "mew" nil t)
    (if (boundp 'mail-user-agent)
        (setq mail-user-agent 'mew-user-agent))
        (if (fboundp 'define-mail-user-agent)
            (define-mail-user-agent
                  'mew-user-agent
                        'mew-user-agent-compose
                              'mew-draft-send-message
                                    'mew-draft-kill
                                          'mew-send-hook))

(setq mew-smtp-log-file "~/mew.smtplog")

(setq mew-mail-domain "cam.ac.uk")
(setq mew-smtp-ssl t)
(setq mew-smtp-ssl-port "587")
;; (setq mew-smtp-auth-plain-authorize-id "ig206")
(setq mew-smtp-server "smtp.hermes.cam.ac.uk")

(setq mew-proto "%")
;; (setq mew-imap-user "your IMAP account")  ;; (user-login-name)
(setq mew-imap-server "imap.hermes.cam.ac.uk")
(setq mew-imap-ssl t)
(setq mew-imap-ssl-port "993")