Question: SMTP vs SMTPS

[mr-j0nes]

Hello there,

just a couple of questions, I am a bit confused about your naming convention for smtp and smtps.
Isn't smtps deprecated like 15 years ago ?

You have the following:
smtp:::auth_method_t::NONE
smtp:::auth_method_t::LOGIN
smtps:::auth_method_t::NONE
smtp:s::auth_method_t::LOGIN
smtp:s::auth_method_t::START_TLS

what is the difference between the two NONEs and the two LOGINs.

As I understand STARTTLS asks the server to upgrade the insecure connection to a secure one. So somehow it makes sense to me to have only one set of NONE, LOGIN and START_LS under a same nemespace..

[karastojko]

Hi,
One NONE is for SMTP the other for SMTPS, same for LOGIN. It would be more elegant to have enum inheritance, but that is not possible in C++.
There are still servers which use SMTPS, and it was easy to add - so there it is.

[mr-j0nes]

Thank you for the reply. I see.
I guess then what confuses me is that START_TLS is not only a feature of SMTPS but also of SMTP. So why is it not available on SMTP too ?

[karastojko]

The idea is that smtps is for the secure type of connections. Since START_TLS is used to secure the connection, it is not available in smtp.

[mr-j0nes]

Ok I see now, thanks a lot.