🚀 go-pugleaf

Mike Mann <mike@kempston.demon.co.uk> wrote the following: 

: Life is becoming complicated for developers of POP3 clients.  As well
: as the standard USER / PASS clear text scheme, there seem to be
: several alternative means of authenticating:

: o  The APOP command defined in RFC 1939, which uses encryption based
:    on the MD5 algorithm described in RFC 1321.

: o  Remote Passphrase Authentication (RPA), described in
:    http://www.compuserve.com/rpa/rpadtails.htm, which is now used by
:    Compuserve.

: o  Secure Password Authentication (SPA) using the AUTH command, which
:    is the only authentication method supported by MSN's POP3 servers.


There is also Kerberos authentication for POP3, although I don't know if
this falls under the above mentioned three. 

I for one still use the normal USER/PASS sequence in any program I write
that has to do something with POP3. I just don't see the use of all the
other things. (Okay, maybe because your password flies over the line
unencrypted.)

-- 
Bernhard van Staveren 	     ----       Mungled headers, addresses below.
home:	madcat(at)superunknown.ml.org   work: staveren(at)xirian.demon.nl
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