[Oberon] Refine *Mail*.Mod

[easlab at absamail.co.za]

edgarschwarz wrote:
> I recently noticed that my (antique) Mail.Mod doesn't show the correct 
> date in Mail.Panel.
> I traced and fixed the problem to MIME.Mod. See
> "http://www.edgar-schwarz.de/repos/obedav/nopatch/MIME.Mod"
> Other patches to NO (Meaning for NO in Bluebottle) are welcome.

Does anybody else use an 'ETH' mailer ?
AFAIK none of them does transmit-authentication.
With the increase in spam this is surely now demanded by most ISPs ?
Initially I was able to bluff transmit-authentication by doing:
   NetSystem.SetUser <args>   TextMail.Directory 
before transmitting.

Then my ISP required proper transmit-authentication.
Ie. as per Micro$loth outsp00k -- the gold-standard !!
Partly because I have to pay a dialup call for each test-cycle,
I haven't managed to update the source code to do the required
authentication yet.

Under linux, the relevant rfc is easily confirmed, and my trace
[I have to post this from linux because N-O fails] shows:-----
# telnet smtp.absamail.co.za 25
Trying 196.35.40.10...
Connected to smtp.absamail.co.za.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 absamail.co.za Novonyx SMTP ready $Revision:   3.22.1.16  $
ehlo
250-absamail.co.za Pleased to meet you
250-HELP
250-EXPN
250-PIPELINING
250-8BITMIME
250-DSN
250-AUTH LOGIN   <--- the Tx-authentication type available [per M$!]
250-AUTH=LOGIN
250 SIZE 3145728
AUTH LOGIN
334 VXNlcm5hbWU6  <--- Base64("Username:")
Y3JnbHVyQGFic2FtYWlsLmNvLnph <--- Base64("crglur at absamail.co.za")
334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6 <--- Base64("Password:")
NTMxMDQz <--- Base64(<my email password>)
235 Authentication successful!  --------------- end of trace.

A pop-side telnet trace is similarly simple as per rfc.
BTW linux-oberon is convenient to do the Base64 encoding/decoding.

N-O telnet is problematic.
Telnet.Panel 's  default "user at host" is IMO wrong, since valid 
arguments are:  URL [port] ; which I can't relate to "user at host" ?

The other problem, which I didn't solve, to automate the linux 
telnet session via a script either, is how to input, to the remote
host, not by keyboard, but from a script.

Under linux> telnet I can input the [eg.] Base64 string via
pasting [gpm] text, followed by <return-key>.

Analagously, N-O's V24.Panel [which I suspect Telnet.Panel is an
incomplete copy attempt of] also sends to the remote host either
what's keyed-in or pasted.   AFAI can remember V24.Panel
sends N-O line terminators, unless 'ET.OpenAscii' text is
pasted. Importantly [AFAIK] telnet protocol expects CR/LF,
which linux > telnet does.  I wonder if N-O telnet does too ?

Since the telnet access to pop and smtp servers is so simple and
exactly as per rfc, I'm wondering how it is that my '90's V2.3.2
Mail.Panel would 'not connect'. I remember suspecting some subtle
timing problem[s], which seemed to be confirmed when the DOSbased 
V2.3.6 did connect without any apparent change in the source code ?

.. to be continued ....as a proposal HOW to fix ETH-mail...


== Chris Glur.