#58 Blat quit working after 6 years on dozens of machines
I run a VPS to support tech needs for my small business clients. On January 11, 2021 all client computers suddenly quit sending messages. At the time I was using blat version from 2017 but upgrading to the current version did not solve the problem.
Using port 465 returns Not a socket errors and testing with port 587 (not acceptable for long term use) returns The SMTP server did not accept Auth PLAIN value.
The following commands are being used on a test machine:
blat -install mail.guardiantm.com blat@guardiantm.com 3 465 GMS blat@guardiantm.com XN$Dg68k!$3Q!_wp
blat c:\Guardian\Logs\vctLog.txt -t vct.alerts@guardiantm.com -s "TEST Alert from Guardian Partners" -p GMS
My VPS hosting tech suggested that blat might not be compatible with TLS but that's not my area of speciality so I have no idea.
Any light you could shed on this would be most appreciated. This is a MAJOR problem for me.
Thank you,
Lou Smith
Old version was Blat v3.2.19 (build : Nov 18 2017 03:14:35)
Current version is Blat v3.2.22 (build : Jul 19 2019 23:25:36)
Result of install and run:
Blat v3.2.22 (build : Jul 19 2019 23:25:54)
64-bit Windows, Full, Unicode
SMTP server set to mail.guardiantm.com on port 465 with user blat@guardiantm.com, retry 3 time(s)
Blat v3.2.22 (build : Jul 19 2019 23:25:54)
64-bit Windows, Full, Unicode
Error: Wait a bit (possible timeout).
Error: Wait a bit (possible timeout).
Error: Wait a bit (possible timeout).
Error SMTP server error
Error: Not a socket.
Error: Not a socket.
Problem solved. Close ticket.
Ok. Some information about ports 465 and 587, these use encrypted connections. Port 465 uses SSL protocol, while port 587 uses TLS protocol. Since Blat does not directly support either SSL or TLS, it is expected that connections to either port will fail. However, the solution I have been using for many years is stunnel from stunnel.org. This nifty tool establishes the SSL / TLS connections, and Blat then connects to a user specified port on IP 127.0.0.1, which stunnel listens for connections. To Blat, the entire session appears to be plain text and goes off without a hitch.
I have been asked to directly incorporate the OpenSSL library into Blat build, so that Blat will see the encrypted connection support in the 250 response, and initiate the SSL / TLS session itself. In addition, there is another request to support OATH2 directly in Blat, which means I would have to get a signed certificate from Google to be included in the Blat executable. The downside I perceive is with providing this as part of the public release.