Title: Server: POP before SMTP Last modified: August 30, 2016 --- # Server: POP before SMTP * Resolved [LinkAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/linkadvisor/) * (@linkadvisor) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/) * Hi. You have a great plugin, and it works very well with my site. Even Google authentication is working 😉 Great Job!! * However, my VIP sever keeps me telling at times that my setting is: POP before SMTP. * What does it means? Or better yet, doeas it affect the SMTP setup and working modus of the Postman SMTP mailer? As far as I could see, I’m using SMTP. Your setup wizzard works well. * Should I change the server settings? I use SMTP only from within WordPress and especially by using your plugin. * Anyway, please let me know. * Thanks — Rainer * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/postman-smtp/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/postman-smtp/) Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * Plugin Author [Jason Hendriks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jasonhendriks/) * (@jasonhendriks) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781373) * [POP before SMTP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POP_before_SMTP) was a **hack to prove your identity to a mail server** in use nearly twenty years ago. Postman doesn’t support it. [Neither has anyone else on the Internet since 2002](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMTP_Authentication#History), AFAIK. * Did you setup the mail server yourself? I think you need to fix it’s settings. * Thread Starter [LinkAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/linkadvisor/) * (@linkadvisor) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781390) * Jason, no I did not. Thank you vey much for the information. Going to follow up this issue. * So what is the alternative? To disable that option? Or to reverse that, meaning SMTP before POP (if that ever has been an option)? * In any case, I will asked the server support for it. * I guess if I’m using your plugin; at least for WP, that mentioned issue wouldn’t be one. * Again, I’m going to fix that strange security issue very soon. * Thanks * — Rainer * Plugin Author [Jason Hendriks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jasonhendriks/) * (@jasonhendriks) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781460) * > So what is the alternative? To disable that option? * SMTP has proper authentication. Plain, Login, CRAM-MD5 and OAuth 2.0. The mail server you are attempting to connect to should enable one (or all) of those. * Thread Starter [LinkAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/linkadvisor/) * (@linkadvisor) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781462) * Maybe it is obvously, but thanks to let me know. I’m sure I do have proper server security installed, not just sure now which one. * As for your plugin, I tried plain, login and OAuth 2.o – and all of them worked. Not sure what kind of security CRAM-MD5 is. It looks like an encryption but so is OAuth and login. * Looks like I need to make the tradeoff between speed and security (encryption method) as this is always the case. * Keep on with the good work! * — Rainer * Plugin Author [Jason Hendriks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jasonhendriks/) * (@jasonhendriks) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781499) * Encryption of the _data_ is provided by either SMTPS or STARTTLS. Additional encryption of your password is provided only by CRAM-MD5. OAuth 2.0 uses tokens instead of passwords. Plain/Login uses no encryption, and if you use Plain/Login without SMTPS or STARTTLS, your password is exposed. * As for speed + security… even if you go full security with SMTP you won’t notice a speed difference. Computers are that fast now. * Cheers * Thread Starter [LinkAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/linkadvisor/) * (@linkadvisor) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781501) * Jason, thanks for clarification. It helped. – Rainer * Thread Starter [LinkAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/linkadvisor/) * (@linkadvisor) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781502) * P.S. I had the feeling that OAuth 2.0 was much slowlier than STARTTLS, but perhaps it was only my computer. And as far as OAuth 2.0 goes, I found it difficult to setup (that is, to get the information of the tokens easily from Google’s site). If you could automate this, that would be great. * But no complains! You gave some hints and I got what I wanted. — Rainer * Plugin Author [Jason Hendriks](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jasonhendriks/) * (@jasonhendriks) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781513) * Automating generating the token would defeat the purpose – it is supposed to be a manual process and not something a program can do. * I do agree with you that google’s interface for creating the client ID certainly could be easier. * Thread Starter [LinkAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/linkadvisor/) * (@linkadvisor) * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781514) * Perhaps not fully automatically, but semi-automatically — presenting the site/ forms etc but still entering the requested information manually. But I guess that could be still a kind of security breach. — Rainer Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘Server: POP before SMTP’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/postman-smtp_7c7b78.svg) * [Postman SMTP Mailer/Email Log](https://wordpress.org/plugins/postman-smtp/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/postman-smtp/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postman-smtp/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postman-smtp/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postman-smtp/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/postman-smtp/reviews/) * 9 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [LinkAdvisor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/linkadvisor/) * Last activity: [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/server-pop-before-smtp/#post-6781514) * Status: resolved