On Thu, 25 Mar 2004, Josh Trutwin wrote:
> As near as I can tell/guess with ethereal, IMAP over SSL is the exact
> same protocol as IMAP just on an SSL enabled port (993 typically) while
> STARTTLS is SSL encrypted, but on the IMAP port (143).  But with
> STARTTLS is it a different protocol?  Is the SMTP connection encrypted
> too?

TLS enables SSL negotiation over a clear-text channel. Once the TLS is
initialized, it's just like a normal IMAP session.

Neither one of these encrypts SMTP, but you can do SMTP over SSL or
STARTTLS with SMTP, too.

Note that most imap/smtp daemons will allow you to require TLS or SSL
before allowing authentication - I always highly recommend doing that, so
you don't get user/pass in the clear. You can also use MD5 authentication,
but it's much more complicated to set up.

-- 
Nate Carlson <natecars at real-time.com>   | Phone : (952)943-8700
http://www.real-time.com                | Fax   : (952)943-8500


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