Article:		Secure Mail Reading on Mac OS X
Subject:		mail.mac.com does not support SSL
Date:		2002-03-21 18:02:44
From:		jmac1
Response to: mail.mac.com does not support SSL
Hmm. After reading your note I tried another test mailfetch from my (otherwise unused) mac.com mail account, and observed that, after connecting, the "Use SSL" checkbox stays checked, but the port number goes back to 143, the ordinary IMAP4 default. It's unclear exactly what's going on, here. It does seems rather cheeky of them, doesn't it... OTOH, if you use iTools account for anything else, your password for it probably gets sent in the raw for these other activities. Thanks for the note.

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• mail.mac.com does not support SSL
  2003-05-16 04:19:58  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  There's a possibility that it uses TLS which (simplified) means that they use SSL on port 143.
  
  You could check using tcpdump (or ethereal) in order to see whether the communication is encrypted.
• mail.mac.com does not support SSL
  2003-05-16 04:24:24  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  (replying to my own anonymous post)
  
  mail.mac.com supports TLS on their imap-port:
  
  * CAPABILITY STARTTLS IMAP4 IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ AUTH=LOGIN AUTH=PLAIN AUTH=EXTERNAL STARTTLS