No. POP-before-SMTP is another a method of authenticating users - we have found it to be unreliable and have potential security issues so we use SMTP authentication instead.

POP-before-SMTP relaying relies on your email client collecting email (via POP / POP3) - it then notes your Internet IP address and allows that IP address to send mail through the server for a certain amount of time (typically around 30-60 minutes).

The problems with this are:

• Some email programs do not collect mail first or send and receive at the same time - this then can result in your email not sending or returning with 'relaying denied' errors.

• If you only send mail (many email programs will send email immediately as they are created) it may not send and return with 'relaying denied' errors.

• Not everyone uses POP / POP3 to collect their mail - many people use IMAP or other email systems and SMTP to send mail.

• Security (part 1) - if you disconnect from the Internet (dialup) or your ISP changes your IP address (broadband) someone else may be allocated your IP address and (although fairly unlikely) 'could' send mail out on your POP-before-SMTP account.

• Security (part 2) - some Internet connections (for instance NAT or SOCKS proxied) 'share' one IP address among multiple local users. Often this is just between users at the same company - this is not always the case - again this could mean other users could relay mail out using your account!

So why use POP-before-SMTP when our AuthSMTP 'authenticated SMTP' service does not suffer from these problems and is available for such a low cost.

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