StartTLS in Eudora 5.2

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Summary

Sonic.net's mail servers have StartTLS encryption available to use with your incoming and outgoing mail settings. Eudora 5.2.1 for OS X does not behave properly with Sonic.net's implementation of StartTLS. Eudora has produced a fix for this. Please note: SSL support does not work with OS X version 10.0.x or 10.1.x. You must have OS X "Jaguar" 10.2 or later to use SSL with Eudora.

"But I don't care about StartTLS or encryption..."

Sonic.net recommends using StartTLS when sending or receiving email, and strongly recommends using StartTLS when sending or receiving mail to and from Sonic.net's mail system while not connected directly to Sonic.net's network via a dialup or DSL connection. While StartTLS is not currently required in that instance, it may be required in the future.

Configuring Eudora for StartTLS

You can configure Eudora 5.2.1 for Mac OS 8 through Mac OS X to use StartTLS by following the steps below.

1. Open the Eudora mail program.
2. Click on the "Special" menu and select "Settings."
3. Scroll down the list of icons on the left, and click the icon labeled "SSL."
4. Change the pulldown menu for "SSL for POP" to either "Required (TLS)" or "Optional (TLS)."
5. Change the pulldown menu for "SSL for SMTP" to either "Required (TLS)" or "Optional (TLS)."

Sonic.net does not have an IMAP server to use, so you can leave the third pulldown menu alone. Please note the message at the bottom of the "SSL" settings screen:

"SSL is supported for MacOS Classic and MacOS 10.2 and later, but not MacOS 10.0 or 10.1."

press Ok to close the Settings window. Now we need to fix Eudora 5.2.1 so that its SSL settings act like Eudora 5.1's.

1. Compose a new mail message, either by clicking on the icon designated to do so, or clicking on the "Message" menu and selecting "New Message."
2. Copy the following text and paste it in the body of the new mail message:

   <x-eudora-setting:32456=768>

3. Double click on the link that appears in the new message.
4. In the window which appears, make sure that the field labeled "The new value would be" is set to "768" and press the button labeled "Set Setting."
5. Close the mail message you had created, and do not save it. Quit Eudora and start it back up.

That's it! All of your incoming and outgoing email should be encrypted between your computer and Sonic.net's mail system!

The fix for this problem was discovered in this article.

Return to the Mac OS setup guides.