Sending Email Using SSL and TLS

Description

Alpha Anywhere supports the ability to send email thru SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS ( Transport Layer Security ). Many SMTP servers require SSL or TLS connection when connecting remotely.

Discussion

Just as with web applications, SSL and TLS provide a layer of encryption when sending email. SSL SMTP connections ordinarily occur on port 465, TLS SMTP connections on the standard SMTP port 25. SMTP over SSL is sometimes referred to as SSMTP (Secure SMTP) or more recently, SMTPS. SSL and TLS are really the same thing, the only difference is in how the connection is started. TLS is technically the successor of SSL, but currently this is just a semantic difference. With TLS, the initial connection to the SMTP server is opened unencrypted on TCP port 25 as normal and then the TLS session is started later in the conversation. With SSL, the connection is initiated encrypted on port 465 and stays encrypted for the entire transaction. This is probably unimportant information for the end user...they do not really need to know the subtle difference between the two; they just need to select the one that the ISP tells them to.