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(Category) SpamCop FAQ : (Category) SpamCop Mail Service : (Category) FAQ about IMAP :
Using Eudora 5.x with IMAP and SSL to access SpamCop Mail

Getting Eudora to read SpamCop mail using IMAP is straightforward. Adding Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption requires additional steps.

Here's how to get it all working. There are three basic steps and one optional:

  1. Create a Eudora "personality" for accessing SpamCop through IMAP.
  2. Configure Eudora SpamCop personality for SSL
  3. Get SSL working
    1. Mark mail.spamcop.net certificate as trusted
    2. Download and import Equifax root certificate

Here we go:

1. Create a Eudora personality for IMAP access to SpamCop mail

The first step is to create a "personality" for SpamCop email. In this description, I assume you have Eudora up and running and want to add a "personality" for reading mail on the Spamcop server.

Start Eudora. Select Tools/Personalities to show the list of personalities. Right click on the white space in the list and select New... to start the wizard to create a new personality for accessing SpamCop email.

When the wizard starts, select "Create a brand new email account" and press Next. Enter a personality name, user name, email address (e.g., xxx@spamcop.net), pressing Next as needed. For the login name, enter your full spamcop email address (e.g., xxx@spamcop.net). Set the incoming server to mail.spamcop.net and select IMAP as the protocol. Leave the "location prefix" blank. Set the outgoing server to the SMTP server that you use. Close the wizard when done.

Eudora will ask for the password for your spamcop account. Enter it when it asks. You should now be accessing Spamcop email successfully using IMAP with Eudora 5.x. As the messages pass over the internet from Spamcop's server to you, they are not encrypted. If you would like to use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer which encrypts traffic over the net), proceed to step 2.

2. Configure Eudora SpamCop personality for SSL

The SpamCop IMAP server uses the "alternate port" technique for SSL access. Eudora's default behavior is to use "STARTTLS" on the default IMAP port. You must change Eudora's SSL behavior to use SSL. Here's how:

Now when you refresh the SpamCop mailbox, Eudora should now report that the operation fails. The failure occurs because of a certificate verification problem. Go to step 3 to correct the certificate problem.

Note: I am uncertain this procedure will work with Eudora 5.1. If it does not, set "Secure Sockets when Receiving" to "Never." With that setting, SSL will not be used. (You can also do the same with Eudora 5.2 to disable SSL. You will still be using IMAP, but the email being sent from SpamCop's mail server to you will not be encrypted.

3. Get SSL working

These steps are required to complete SSL configuration when reading mail from the SpamCop IMAP server.

Open the personality property again and go to the "Incoming Mail" tab again. Click on the "Last SSL Info" button. You should see these messages:

Certificate Error: Cert Chain not trusted.
Try adding this certificate to your certificate database for SSL to succeed.
Certificate Error: Unknown and unprovided root certificate.

Click on the "Certificate Information Manager" button. There are now two ways that you can fix this problem: either mark the mail.spamcop.net certificate as trusted, or import the missing root certificate. You need do only one of these two options.

3a. Mark mail.spamcop.net certificate as trusted

With the "Certificate Information Manager" dialogopened, select the server certificate for mail.spamcop.net (this entry will probably already be selected). Click the "Add to Trusted" button, then Done, OK, OK. Enter your password again when prompted.

You should now be able to read SpamCop mail using IMAP and SSL. If you open the personality properties, go to the "incoming mail" tab and click on "Last SSL Info" button, you should see these messages:

Certificate Error: Unknown and unprovided root certificate.
But ignoring this error because Certificate is trusted

At this point, Eudora is working fine using IMAP and SSL to access your Spamcop email.

3b. Download and import Equifax root certificate

The reason "unknown and unprovided root certificate" messages shows up on the "Last SSL Info" screen is that Eudora 5.2 has not included the root certificate for Equifax that the mail.spamcop.net certificate refers to. As an alternative to simply flagging the mail.spamcop.net certificate as trusted, you could provide an Equifax root certificate, and mark it as trusted instead. "Last SSL Info" would then just show "Certificate OK".

If you want to do this, you'll need to get the Equifax root certificate. Browsers are normally responsible for providing the root certificate, so I think supplying the certificate is Eudora's responsibility. However, since Eudora has not supplied the Equifax certificate, SpamCop has placed a copy on the spamcop.net web site.

To install the Equifax root certificate:

Thereafter, each time you refresh your Spamcop mailbox, Eudora will be able to find the root certificate and conclude everything was fine.

Having done all of the above, the only difference from just having marked the mail.spamcop.net certificate as trusted is that the "Last SSL Info" message will say the certificate is OK. You never see that message unless you go digging for it.

*Special thanks to Guy Scharf for providing these instructions*