Imap problems after yrs of use with my config.

[Harry Putnam]

My remote imap server is imap.fastmail.com.

I've been able to access that server for literally a couple of yrs with the
following code.

(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
'(nnimap "hput3fm"
(nnimap-address "imap.fastmail.com")))


And the credential in ~/.authinfo

machine hput3fm login ***@fastmail.fm password MY-PASSWD port imap force yes

------- ------- ---=--- ------- -------

On advice from fastmail I added:

(add-to-list 'gnus-secondary-select-methods
'(nnimap "hput3fm"
(nnimap-address "imap.fastmail.com")
(nnimap-server-port 993)))

They can't get past the notion that this is not being done on
some nifty windows application and so I added the port they insisted
on just in case it might help.

It did not help.

The uid and passwd has always been my login on their website.

I recently had to change my passwd at the web login

But in the course of this I found a new policy was put in place a
while ago where to use fastmail servers, you need to get something
they call an App passwd .. I guess they geared up to handle
phones/tablets and whatever.

So, I end up with 2 new passwds... one to access my fastmail acc and
this new policy ... app passwd for .. apparently for smtp server or
imap server.

OK, so I got account passwd changed about a week ago, and got the `app
passwd' on friday I think.

I've been unable to access imap.fastmail.com ever since.

I did try with both new passwds, making sure.

I've been in touch with fastmail via a trouble ticket but so far their
usefulness has been right up there with teats on a boar hog.

They've told me to use the `App passwd' now. Of course I replied
letting them know it was not working and waiting now to hear back.

So any suggestions as to what I can do to learn more about why it is
rejected?

I don't see much in \*Messages\*

I open another emacs window and go to \*Messages\* buffer, then
in the other window, enter the server buffer, then at the `denied'
flag on the fastmail server I do a Close followed by an open
(C, then O) then a few moments, the `denied' flag reappears.

But all that appears in the \*Messages\* buffer is:

Opening connection to imap.fastmail.com via tls...

That's it.

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Post by Harry Putnam
My remote imap server is imap.fastmail.com.

[...]

Post by Harry Putnam
But in the course of this I found a new policy was put in place a
while ago where to use fastmail servers, you need to get something
they call an App passwd .. I guess they geared up to handle
phones/tablets and whatever.
So, I end up with 2 new passwds... one to access my fastmail acc and
this new policy ... app passwd for .. apparently for smtp server or
imap server.
OK, so I got account passwd changed about a week ago, and got the `app
passwd' on friday I think.
I've been unable to access imap.fastmail.com ever since.
I did try with both new passwds, making sure.
I've been in touch with fastmail via a trouble ticket but so far their
usefulness has been right up there with teats on a boar hog.
They've told me to use the `App passwd' now. Of course I replied
letting them know it was not working and waiting now to hear back.
So any suggestions as to what I can do to learn more about why it is
rejected?

I doubt this is much to do with Gnus in particular. A quick scan of the
Fastmail documentation simply says that your "real" account password
will only work with Fastmail's own app/web client, so you should
definitely be using the "app password" you created for Gnus. Just to
make everything clean, I'd also delete the authinfo line, and give the
credentials manually when Gnus prompts you.

They also say not to use starttls, but it looks like nnimap will try ssl
first, anyway, so that shouldn't make any difference. If you're
a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy, you could try setting nnimap-stream
to `ssl' in your secondary methods setting.

In general, when stuff like this doesn't work out, it's usually best to
drop out of Emacs/Gnus and try via the command line. Depending on your
system, you can use something like gnutls-cli or openssl s_client to
manually log in from the command line, and sometimes that will show you
something interesting. At least it might rule out some problems.

Dunno what else to say...

Eric

[Harry Putnam]

[...]

Post by Eric Abrahamsen

Post by Harry Putnam
They've told me to use the `App passwd' now. Of course I replied
letting them know it was not working and waiting now to hear back.
So any suggestions as to what I can do to learn more about why it is
rejected?

I doubt this is much to do with Gnus in particular. A quick scan of the
Fastmail documentation simply says that your "real" account password
will only work with Fastmail's own app/web client, so you should
definitely be using the "app password" you created for Gnus. Just to
make everything clean, I'd also delete the authinfo line, and give the
credentials manually when Gnus prompts you.

Interestingly, given the fact that fastmail has been very explicit
about using my new App passwd and imap.fastmail.com, I've found a
workaround for the time been that may quit working down the road.

I've discovered, by accident, and using the shotgun approach of trying
everything I can think of, that by connecting to a supposedly no-
longer working server NOT imap.fastmail.com that my new account
password works just fine. Not the App passwd.

So for now, all is well.

Post by Eric Abrahamsen
They also say not to use starttls, but it looks like nnimap will try ssl
first, anyway, so that shouldn't make any difference. If you're
a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy, you could try setting nnimap-stream
to `ssl' in your secondary methods setting.

When and if my `by chance' solution quits working, I'll try that with
ssl.

You're right about it not having anything to do with gnus
But great thanks for doing your best even though that is true.

The one thing gnus did have to do with this is that when I used the
supposed wrong server IP, gnus prompted me for user and passwd, and
then asked if it should write that info to ~/.authinfo, I replied `yes'
and gnus obligingly wrote the pertinent info to ~/.authinfo.

Well done gnus!

[Byung-Hee HWANG (황병희, 黃炳熙)]

Dear Harry,

Post by Harry Putnam
And the credential in ~/.authinfo

Actually, i'm not expert. But it's odd, i think: "s/imap/imaps/g".

Sincerely, Byung-Hee.

[Harry Putnam]

Post by Byung-Hee HWANG (황병희, 黃炳熙)
Dear Harry,

Post by Harry Putnam
And the credential in ~/.authinfo

Actually, i'm not expert. But it's odd, i think: "s/imap/imaps/g".

Yes you are right. When gnus prompted me if I wanted gnus to write
the credentials I had entered ... that is exactly what gnus wrote for
me. imaps, not imap

Thanks