252
edits
Enable TLS on smtp.aa.net.uk: Difference between revisions
m
→Mutt
m (→Why do this?) |
m (→Mutt) |
||
| (37 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
|
=Brief Overview=
This article as about enabling TLS in your existing email program when sending email through the AAISP email servers (smtp.aa.net.uk). If you are setting up an email program from scratch then simply select/tick the options to use TLS. This page gives help when you want to edit an existing account to enable TLS.▼
In short, we recommend that all customers use [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security TLS] (Also known as STARTTLS) when sending email through our servers. Here are our recommended settings, which you may want to check against the settings that you currently have in your email program:
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="3"|Outgoing email settings
|-
!Outgoing Server
|smtp.aa.net.uk
|-
!Port
|587 or 25. Given a choice, use 587
|-
!Security
|STARTTLS (sometimes called TLS)
|-
!Authentication
|Password, and use the same username & password as your IMAP/POP3 settings.
|}
=TLS=
▲This article
==Why do this?==
Firstly, it is good to understand what TLS is and why enabling TLS is good.
TLS stands for Transport Layer Security - it is similar to https web pages in that the data sent between your email program is sent securely. This is good as it prevents
[[File:SMTP-TLS.svg|none|frame|Enabling TLS is the connection between you and the AAISP email server, the rest of the connections are out of our hands though.]]
It
Enabling TLS is different from encrypting your actual message. TLS will encrypt the data between you and the AAISP mail servers - hiding the metadata and so on. If you want to ensure only the recipient can read your message then this can be done by encrypting the message with PGP or S/MIME.
==Certificate Warnings==
You should not get a certificate warning when using our outgoing mail server, if you do then please check that the smtp server is set to: smtp.aa.net.uk as other variations will give a warning that the server name does not match the security certificate. If you do get a warning then that may mean that you are not talking to our servers and you should check the error message and the certificate carefully. If in doubt then please contact Support.
== What we don't support==
We don't support port 465 as this is deprecated and replaced with using TLS or STARTTLS on ports 25 or 587.
== What if my email program or device doesn't support TLS? ==
Modern email programs that you use on a computer or mobile device should be capable of supporting modern TLS ciphers - if not then the program is probably very old, out of date and will have other problems. It would be best to upgrade - If you're not sure, then Mozilla's Thunderbird is a good choice.
Some devices such as webcams, DVRs, and so on the want to send email may lack TLS features. If this is the case, then do check for firmware updates.
If you are sending from outside of our network, i.e. using another broadband or mobile provider, then you will be using authentication. This involves sending your username and password across the internet to our servers. This should be done with TLS enabled as otherwise your credentials could be seen by other people who could steal your password and cause mayhem!
At the moment (2016-12), for legacy reasons, we still do allow customers to send authenticated email without TLS - this is a risk and it is a feature we want to disable in the near future. We will then only allow authenticated email over TLS. If a customer needs to send email when not using our broadband services and cannot support TLS then we'd have to suggest to use the email services provided by the ISP you are connected to.
We do allow customers on our broadband services to send email without authentication and this can be with TLS enabled or disabled, but we'd always suggest enabling TLS
Here is a summary table of sending email on A&A and other 3rd party broadband providers:
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="4"|Requirements for sending email through smtp.aa.net.uk
|-
!Broadband
!TLS
!Authentication
!Port
|-
!A&A Broadband
|Optional, but recommended
|Optional, but recommended
|587
|-
!Non A&A Broadband
|Required
|Required
|587
|-
|}
=How to Enable TLS=
Load Thunderbird/Icedove, then go to:
Edit (or Tools) -> Account Settings -> Outgoing Server (SMTP) -> Edit -> Set "Connection security: STARTTLS"
[[File:Thunderbird-smtp-tls.png|none|frame|TLS settings on Thunderbird]]
Ensure that you '''don't''' have the connection security set to 'SSL/TLS
== Windows Live Mail ==
Load Outlook then go to:
Tools -> Account Settings... -> Change -> More Settings -> Advanced -> Set "Use the following type of encrypted connection: TLS""
== Eudora ==
We'd suggest not using Eudora as it is old and unsupported software which is probably using outdated encryption ciphers.
Qualcomm is no longer developing Eudora OSE and its community support forum no longer exists. Furthermore, the last released version is based on an old version of Thunderbird which is no longer supported, has many bugs and performance problems, and known security issues. Users might like to try Thunderbird as an alternative email program.
Source [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Eudora_OSE wiki.mozilla.org]
== OSX Mail ==
It looks like (at least Sierra) Mail automatically manages the security and will pick port 587 and TLS - which is good. To check this:
Open the Mac Mail App
Mail --> Preferences --> Click on the email account --> Check that 'Automatically manage connection settings' is enabled.
If you untick 'Automatically manage connection settings' then you can see that it uses: Port: 587, Use TLS/SSL: Ticked, Authentication: Password.
== iPhone default mail app==
From the phone, go to:
Settings -> Mail, Contact, Calendars -> Choose your email account -> Advanced -> SMTP -> Set "Use SSL: ON"
== iPad default mail app ==
From the iPad go to:
Settings -> Mail -> Accounts -> Choose your email account -SMTP -> Choose the Primary Server -> set Host Name=smtp.aa.net.uk, use SSL=On, Server Port=587
== Android (possibly older) default Email app==
== Mutt ==
Mutt will
Typically, you can enable TLS with the following entries in your .muttrc:
<syntaxhighlight lang="shell">
set ssl_starttls=yes
set ssl_force_tls=yes
</syntaxhighlight>
You will also need to ensure that you have specified port 587 at the end of the smtp_url.
== Other Email programs==
To test if TLS is actually working, you can send yourself an email then look at the [[Email Viewing Headers|headers]] and look for the Received lines showing the connection between your computer and smtp.aa.net.uk:
<syntaxhighlight lang="shell">
Received: from andrew.ec.aa.net.uk ([2001:8b0:1:ec::8])
by smtp.aa.net.uk with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128)
An email sent without TLS would look similar, but would not show any TLS information.
<syntaxhighlight lang="shell">
Received: from andrew.ec.aa.net.uk ([2001:8b0:1:ec::8])
by smtp.aa.net.uk with esmtp
| |||