[Dovecot] TLS timeout with Thunderbird

[Steven F Siirila]

On Fri, Nov 17, 2006 at 06:32:18PM -0500, Jason Dixon wrote:
> On Nov 17, 2006, at 6:22 PM, Mark Nienberg wrote:
> 
> >Jason Dixon wrote:
> > This happens with Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 and 1.5.0.8 on Mac OS X, and
> >>Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 on Windows 2000.  Any ideas would be greatly  
> >>appreciated.
> >
> >Dovecot works well with imaps and pops.  I'm kind of surprised to  
> >hear that your Mail.app works.  Is it really using TLS?  Anyway,  
> >I'm sure if you switch to ssl instead, it will work.  I have  
> >Thunderbird on Mac and Win doing it that way.  There is some info  
> >in the wiki about how to configure.
> 
> I stand corrected, Mail.app is using SSL (or at least, that's the  
> only option in the account settings).  After changing Thunderbird to  
> use SSL, it makes a successful connection.  I'm curious though;  I  
> have verbose_ssl enabled, and all I see is that a TLS login was  
> completed.  Why does it say TLS, if it's really using SSL?  Why do we  
> not see any additional information about the session?

Terminology.  SSL has several versions: SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1.
All are considered to be Secure Sockets Layer, with the last one being
the most current version.  I think what some folks think of when they
hear "TLS" is the more modern way of negotiating an SSL/TLS connection
via POP's STLS or IMAP's STARTTLS or SMTP's STARTTLS commands.
Whether you use an "SSL" port (e.g. 465, 993, 995) or a non-SSL port
(e.g. 25, 587, 143, 110) and negotiate "SSL", you are likely using TLSv1.

> Nov 17 18:29:27 colo2 dovecot: imap-login: Login:  
> user=<jason at dixongroup.net>, method=PLAIN, rip=151.x.x.192,  
> lip=38.x.x.248, TLS
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> --
> Jason Dixon
> DixonGroup Consulting
> http://www.dixongroup.net
> 
> 
> 

-- 

Steven F. Siirila			Office: Lind Hall, Room 130B
Internet Services			E-mail: sfs at umn.edu
Office of Information Technology	Voice: (612) 626-0244
University of Minnesota			Fax: (612) 626-7593