Hello
For several days, I have problems to connect to an S MTP server - It seems to be an auth entification problem
Th e ISP gave me the following information :

Protocol Server -WEB- Port TLS SSL Authentication
IMAP imap.online.net 143 (recommend) Yes No Yes
IMAPS imap.online.net 993 No Yes Yes
POP3 pop.online.net 110 (recommend) Yes No Yes
POP3 pop.online.net 995 No Yes Yes
SMTP smtp.online.net 25 Yes No Yes
SMTP smtp.online.net 587 (recommend) Yes No Yes
SMTP smtp.online.net 2525 Yes No Yes
SMTPS smtp.online.net 465 No Yes Yes

my mail adress is achats@circus-photos.com
Let assume that my password is password

What should I check in the different panels for SMTP settings and what value should I enter (if needed)

Thanks everyone for any help you can provide
Have a good evening

Unknowns:

• The information you provided does not state whether STARTTLS will work so this will be trial and error. If it doesn't work, try the Via direct SSL connect radio button.
• The information you provided does not state whether your authentication username needs to be your full email address or just the username part. You can try to get the clarified or do trial and error.

Tools > Internet Options

General tab:

• Enter achats@circus-photos.com in the My internet address is: field.

In the Sending (SMTP) tab:

General tab:

• Use the Remove button to remove all listed SMTP hosts.
• Click the Add button
• Click the New button
• Enter a name for this definition
• Enter smtp.online.net in the Server host name: field
• Enter 587 in the Server TCP/IP port: field
• Enter 120 in the Timeout: field

Security tab:

• Click the Via STARTTLS radio button (see comment in Unknowns at the beginning of this response)
• Click the Login to the SMTP server with the following username and password checkbox (3rd checkbox from the bottom)
• Enter your email address in the Username field (see comment in Unknowns at the beginning of this response)
• Enter your password in the password field.All other checkboxes should be blank.

Finally, at the bottom of the Internet options General tab is a checkbox that turns on internet session logging. This log will tell you the point of failure. Enable it and then attempt a send. The resulting log file will be in a directory named TCPLogs located in your mailbox directory. It will have a .smtp extension but is a plain text file viewable with a text editor. DO NOT post the entire content of an internet session log file. They contain your authentication credentials either in plain text or in an easily decodable form.

Thank you very much

I asked my ISP what should be used as "user name"
I tried both SSL options and I got the following errors

1) For Via direct SSL Connect

 10.387: --- 28 Jul 2024, 14:39:10.387 ---
14:39:10.387: Connect to 'smtp.online.net', timeout 45 seconds.
14:39:11.435: [!] OpenSSL reported error -1/1 during handshake - diagnostics follow:
14:39:11.435: [!] -------------------------------------------------------------------------
14:39:11.435: [!] error:1408F10BSL routines:ssl3_get_record:wrong version number
14:39:11.435: [!] -------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Via STARTTLS

14:40:59.105: --- 28 Jul 2024, 14:40:59.105 ---
14:40:59.105: Connect to 'smtp.online.net', timeout 45 seconds.
14:41:20.142: 15: Peer connect failure

Does that help or give additional information ?

T hanks again

Some more test

Via STARTTLS and Port 587

14:59:26.459: >> 250-STARTTLS
14:59:26.459: >> 250-SMTPUTF8
14:59:26.459: >> 250 HELP
14:59:26.463: << STARTTLS
14:59:26.505: >> 220 TLS go ahead
14:59:26.547: [] SSL/TLS session established
14:59:26.547: [] TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384, TLSv1.3, Kx=any, Au=any, Enc=AESGCM(256), Mac=AEAD
14:59:26.547: [] Peer's certificate name is '/CN=.online.net'.
14:59:26.547: << EHLO [192.168.1.102]
14:59:26.571: >> 250-smtpauth-internal.online.net Hello [192.168.1.102] [92.152.59.154]
14:59:26.571: >> 250-SIZE 52428800
14:59:26.571: >> 250-8BITMIME
14:59:26.571: >> 250-PIPELINING
14:59:26.571: >> 250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
14:59:26.571: >> 250-CHUNKING
14:59:26.571: >> 250-SMTPUTF8
14:59:26.571: >> 250 HELP
14:59:26.571: << AUTH LOGIN
14:59:26.588: >> 334 VXNlcm5hbWU6
14:59:26.588: << YWNoYXRzQGNpcmN1cy1waG90b3MuY29tIA==
14:59:28.519: >> 535 Incorrect authentication data

Seems to get more information, but don't know if this helps ;-)

Thanks for your patience !

This confirms that STARTTLS with port 587 is a winner in regards to connecting to the server.

These entries are the clue to the failure.
The 334 entry is a prompt from the SMTP server for the Username.
The following entry is the reply from Pegasus Mail providing the username. As you can see, they are encoded (dbase64, easily decoded with online tools such like www.base64decode.org).
The 535 entry states "Incorrect authentication data" which tells you that the username is invalid.

If you are certain that you have entered it correctly in the Security tab of the SMTP host definition then you many need your service provider to explicitly tell you what the authentication username needs to be. BTW, you can use the online tool mentioned above to decode the username in the log to confirm that what was transmitted is what was intended. Reminder, a log that gets beyond this point will include your password. It also will be a 334 request followed by the password in response. If you post another log, delete or obfuscate the content of each entry following a 334 request.

Seems to have a space included at end of encoded email address??

echo YWNoYXRzQGNpcmN1cy1waG90b3MuY29tIA== | base64 -d >decode-out
hexedit decode-out

0000000 61 63 68 61 74 73 40 63 69 72 63 75 73 2D 70 68 6F 74 6F 73 2E 63 6F 6D achats@circus-photos.com
00000018 20

Without the extra space
echo -n achats@circus-photos.com | base64
YWNoYXRzQGNpcmN1cy1waG90b3MuY29t
With the extra space
echo -n achats@circus-photos.com\ | base64
YWNoYXRzQGNpcmN1cy1waG90b3MuY29tIA==

So would check setting in Pegasus to remove the space in email address field?

Would be hard to see space at end. Move to end of field and backspace or delete?

Hope that helps,

Nice catch @msetzerii!

Problem solved ... with your help !

Thank you all ! Have a good week !

Problem solved ... with your help !

Thank you all ! Have a good week !