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Eudora with Hermes suddenly can't send on Earthlink

2023-07-25
2023-08-29
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  • peregrine159

    peregrine159 - 2023-07-25

    Regretfully I still use Earthlink for email, and they announced End of Life for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for July 17, 2023. My Eudora still worked for a couple of days after that, but then jammed up completely. After installing 7.1 (I was on 7.0) and Hermes, it started working again, albeit occasionally I would have to check 2-3 times to get the SSL to go through.

    Today, however, all of a sudden it only works with receiving emails, but on sending I get "SSL Negotiation Failed", or "Could not connect to smtpauth.earthlink.net Cause: Connection Timed Out (10060)"

    Help!

    Thanks much

     
    • Pete Maclean

      Pete Maclean - 2023-07-26

      I am easily able to open a TLS 1.2 connection with smtpauth.earthlink.net using port 587 and "Required STARTTLS".

       
      • peregrine159

        peregrine159 - 2023-07-26

        Hi Pete, thanks so much for all your superhero work for us Eudora folks! And thanks for getting back to me. I fear that the Eudora/Earthlink community has only one memberThe Send problem came up suddenly after five happy days with the Hermes extension. Right now when I send, it hangs for a minute on "Contacting", then times out, see image below. This is on Required, Alternate Port in the Send settings. The other Send settings give a different error message (SSL Negotiation Failed). What would you recommend I try for a next step?

         
      • peregrine159

        peregrine159 - 2023-08-01

        Hi Pete, can you explain how you opened a TLS 1.2 connection with smtpauth.earthlink.net using port 587 and "Required STARTTLS"? Do you have an Earthlink POP account, or can you test without having one? My problem persists, and I just tried installing a new copy of Eudora 7.1 on another laptop, with your Feb 2022 update.

        Receiving is fine.

        Sending doesn't work. On the second laptop it doesn't even try to send, ie. it instantly gives the message " "Error getting network address for "smtpauth@earthlink.net" Cause host not found (11001)", whereas on the first laptop it spends a while trying to connect to a particular IP.

        What I really don't get is why sending was fine for five days after installing Hermes, and then suddenly stopped working, despite no changes to settings.

        Please let me know what you would do for next steps, thanks! Eudora without being able to send is a real bummer. Thanks so much.

         
        • Pete Maclean

          Pete Maclean - 2023-08-01

          There is an easy explanation for why sending does not work on your second laptop: You should be using the address ""smtpauth.earthlink.net", not "smtpauth@earthlink.net".

          I am able to open a TLS 1.2 connection with Earthlink because that step in the communications is completed without any credentials being sent. I do not have an Earthlink POP account and so am unable to login, but that does not matter.

          For the case of the first laptop, please look in your Eudora directory for a file named "QCSSL_Log.txt" and post it here for me to take a look at. Or send it directly to me as an email attachment if you prefer.

           
          • peregrine159

            peregrine159 - 2023-08-01

            Hi Pete, thanks for catching the dumb typo on laptop 2. I fixed that, and now the behavior is the same on both, i.e. receiving with SSL is fine, sending is not.

            Today for some reason I'm able to send without SSL on both laptops, which in previous days didn't work and got an error message to the effect of "You have to use SSL"

            Here's QCSSL_Log.txt from Laptop 1

             
            • peregrine159

              peregrine159 - 2023-08-01

              and here's the log file from Laptop 2

               
              • peregrine159

                peregrine159 - 2023-08-03

                Hi Pete,

                Any insight from those QCSSL_Log.txt files? I've been stumbling around life not being able to send from Eudora and it's kind of like having one hand tied behind your back. Thanks so much!!

                 
            • Pete Maclean

              Pete Maclean - 2023-08-04

              Thank you for posting these log files. And apologies for not getting back to you sooner. The first thing that the logs make clear is that you are using a very old version of QCSSL. Please download the latest from http://www.maclean.com/downloads/QCSSL_Update.zip . This may just solve your problem. If it does not then please send logs from this new version.

               
              • peregrine159

                peregrine159 - 2023-08-04

                Hi Pete, thanks so much for getting back to me, you're a star.

                I just downloaded the files from http://www.maclean.com/downloads/QCSSL_Update.zip, and I'm getting the same behavior, i.e. receiving is fine, whereas sending hangs and then fails.

                Attached is a new log file from just now, does this give you any insight?

                 
                • Pete Maclean

                  Pete Maclean - 2023-08-05

                  Something curious is going on here! This latest log shows only POP connections being made to Earthlink; it shows no SMTP attempts at all. Perhaps you could send me another log immediately after making a couple of attempts to send mail.

                   
                  • peregrine159

                    peregrine159 - 2023-08-06

                    Hi Pete, thanks so much for checking the logs. Here's another one, after a couple of failed attempts to send. The SMTP failures do seem to be in there.

                     
                    • peregrine159

                      peregrine159 - 2023-08-06

                      Here's how the status/error bar looks. It hangs for a while on Sending/Contacting, then returns the "Could not connect" message

                       
                      • peregrine159

                        peregrine159 - 2023-08-06

                        And here are my Sending Mail settings, in case there's some dumb thing I'm missing?

                         
                        • Pete Maclean

                          Pete Maclean - 2023-08-06

                          Please edit your "Eudora.ini" file, find the section for the "Earthlink" persona and add the following line to it:

                          SSLAltPortSendVersion=9

                          Or, if you already have an entry for SSLAltPortSendVersion set to some other value then change it to 9. If you need more help to do this, just ask.

                           
                          • peregrine159

                            peregrine159 - 2023-08-06

                            Thanks, so far it didn't work, but did I put it in the right part of the .ini file? See screenshot

                             
                            • peregrine159

                              peregrine159 - 2023-08-06

                              ps there wasn't any existing line with SSLAltPortSendVersion

                               
                            • Pete Maclean

                              Pete Maclean - 2023-08-06

                              Sorry but I am unable to tell if you put it in the right place because your screenshot happened to not include the section header.

                              I am sorry this is taking so long. But please try again and send me a fresh log file. That will tell me if you put it in the right place.

                               
                              • peregrine159

                                peregrine159 - 2023-08-06

                                No problem, I'm just grateful for the help! Here's a fresh log file.

                                Here are the headers , it's the first section

                                [Settings]
                                NC=1
                                Code=NC
                                LastKnownCrashInfo=1
                                Mode=0
                                UserSignatures=1
                                CtrlJMapping=1
                                SeenIntro=1
                                POPAccount=

                                 
                                • Pete Maclean

                                  Pete Maclean - 2023-08-06

                                  Sorry (again!) but this log, like that one before, shows only POP connections, no SMTP attempts. And it looks like you have that configuration in the wrong section. It should be in the section that contains: SMTPServer=smtpauth.earthlink.net

                                   
                                  • peregrine159

                                    peregrine159 - 2023-08-06

                                    Thanks, I tried putting it just after the line
                                    SMTPServer=smtpauth.earthlink.net
                                    . . . and then the receiving stopped working.

                                    After that I moved it to before that SMTP line, and receiving was back to working, but no change on the Send issue.

                                    As with the previous log, I tried sending three or four times before saving the log file for you, and for some reason it's not logging the SMTP events.

                                    Here's a screenshot of the eudora.ini file

                                     
                                    • Pete Maclean

                                      Pete Maclean - 2023-08-07

                                      This is getting mighty puzzling. And I will keep thinking...

                                       
  • Zo K

    Zo K - 2023-07-25

    This generic advice usually applies: Set your sending and receiving to "Required, Alternate Port".

     
  • peregrine159

    peregrine159 - 2023-07-25

    Thanks, unfortunately "Required, Alternate Port" isn't working for the send problem.

    I do have it set on that for receiving, and it's working.

    So, I still need help, thanks!

     
  • peregrine159

    peregrine159 - 2023-07-25

    PS, I've installed a QCSSL file which file manager says was created Feb 21, 2022. Do I also need to do anything with my Eudora.ini file?

     
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