No. POP-before-SMTP is another a method of authenticating users - we have
found it to be unreliable and have potential security issues so we use SMTP
authentication instead.
POP-before-SMTP relaying relies on your email client collecting email (via
POP / POP3) - it then notes your Internet IP address and allows that IP address
to send mail through the server for a certain amount of time (typically around
30-60 minutes).
The problems with this are:
- Some email programs do not collect mail first or send and receive at the
same time - this then can result in your email not sending or returning with
'relaying denied' errors.
- If you only send mail (many email programs will send email immediately
as they are created) it may not send and return with 'relaying denied'
errors.
- Not everyone uses POP / POP3 to collect their mail - many people use
IMAP or other email systems and SMTP to send mail.
- Security (part 1) - if you disconnect from the Internet (dialup) or your
ISP changes your IP address (broadband) someone else may be allocated your
IP address and (although fairly unlikely) 'could' send mail out on your
POP-before-SMTP account.
- Security (part 2) - some Internet connections (for instance NAT or SOCKS
proxied) 'share' one IP address among multiple local users. Often this is
just between users at the same company - this is not always the case - again
this could mean other users could relay mail out using your account!
So
why use POP-before-SMTP when our AuthSMTP 'authenticated SMTP' service does
not suffer from these problems and is available for such a
low cost.
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