Errors when trying to send @verizon.net

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Another week, another large company makes a change on their mail servers. If I just had a dime every time this happens...

For an exiting account:

- Long press the account in Aqua's main window (account list)

- Account Setup

- Manual, then Next

You'll be looking at detailed outgoing server settings.

- Change "Authentication" from "Choose automatically" to "SASL PLAIN".

- Press Next to validate the new settings, save, try sending.

For a new account:

It's the same, use Manual account setup and change authentication for the outgoing mail server.

What happened, why AquaMail is affected, but not all mail apps are

There are several methods to log into (authenticate on) an outgoing mail server, depending on what a particular outgoing mail server says it supports.

Some of those methods are more secure than others. AquaMail supports, and prefers, the most secure method, called CRAM-MD5. It's this authentication method that's broken on Verizon's outgoing mail server since a few days ago (or maybe initially added then, and broken from the start).

Mail apps that don't use this authentication method won't be affected by it being broken. Stock Android Email and Samsung Email seem to be like that.

[NJRonbo]

EXACTLY the reason why I came to this forum after spending a few days trying to figure out why AquaMail was not sending mail out via Verizon.

Thank you for keeping on top of this.  The fix worked PERFECTLY.

[Kostya Vasilyev]

That's why I also posted a notice on the app's web site ( http://www.aqua-mail.com/ ) and even in its Google Play description.

Tried to report this to Verizon via an (unofficial) support community on Google+. My post was deleted and I was kicked out within minutes.

[Ibnu]

Hi there,

I have similar issues sending email using Gmail account. Did try the solution here, but not working.  I'm using telkomsel as the cellular operator. When I tried to send email, it says error 550 550 error as shown in screen capture attached. Could you please help me on this one?

[Kostya Vasilyev]

Oh my. What will break next, all of Internet routing?

The solution was for Verizon, not for Gmail.

The Gmail issue is different. Many, many people are affected, using all sorts of mail apps.

Please see discussion on Google's support forums:

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/gmail/xChsjMRFCUc%5B201-225-false%5D

[Ibnu]

Thanks for the information... Gosh... It is true because of a period in the email address... The solution is by adding an alias without a period. It is working well...

Thanks!

[Kostya Vasilyev]

So I decided to Google it for a bit.

Mail app one, unrelated to Aqua:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-net-Email/Sudden-change-in-Verizon-SMTP-protocol-breaks-email-clients/m-p/725299

Quoting:

On Friday 8/1/2014 between 10:23 am and 3:12pm EST Verizon's SMTP servers changed from sending the following lines:
 
250-AUTH PLAIN LOGIN
250-AUTH=LOGIN PLAIN
 
to these:
 
250-AUTH DIGEST-MD5 PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5
250-AUTH=LOGIN PLAIN
 
These two lines are inconsistent and are breaking my MDaemon email client, which now thinks it can authenticate using
CRAM-MD5 encoding.  This encoding doesn't appear to be supported by Verizon, since I get the following error:
 
500 5.7.0 Unknown AUTH error -1 (Internal authentication error).
 
I've had no luck using telephone support.  Hopefully someone at Verizon will see this and respond.

Mail app two, unrelated to Aqua:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29435575-Can-t-send-email-get-550-5.7.1-Authentication-Required

Quoting:

The root cause of this problem is at Verizon's end, and is undoubtedly the result of a configuration change they made. During SMTP/TLS session initiation, smtp.verizon.net advertises a capability for method of authentication (CRAM-MD5) which it doesn't actually support.

Clients (such as Eudora or postfix) which default to trying CRAM-MD5 first fail to authenticate because the verizon mail server complains that the authentication method that it just advertised as being supported isn't actually supported. This behavior is unwelcome at the client, which will drop the connection.

[hkr]

Errors when trying to send from a verizon.net account

By Kostya Vasilyev on August 2, 2014
Another week, another large company messes up their mail server. If I just had a dime every time this happens…
For an existing account:
- Long press the account in Aqua’s main window (account list)
- Account Setup
- Manual, then Next
You’ll be looking at detailed outgoing server settings.
- Change “Authentication” from “Choose automatically” to “SASL PLAIN”.
- Press Next to validate the new settings, save, try sending.

In my case this doesn't work What to do?

Hkr

[Kostya Vasilyev]

@hkr - is yours a @verizon.net account?

What actual error message do you get?