zoho pop3 problems

[Todd and Margo Chester]

Hi All,

I just signed up for a zoho.com eMail account.
I can log into mail.zoho.com no problem. While
I was there, I went into settings and activated
(all mail) my POP3 account.

I can send mail from Thunderbird.

But, pop3 from thunderbird gives me:

Sending of password did not succeed. Mail server
pop.zoho.com responded: Too many parameters specified.

I have tried copy and pasting my password into web mail
(works) and into Thunderbird (gives the above error).

Any ideas?

Many thanks,
-T

[Mike Easter]

Delete the user/pass from the zoho account in the password manager so
Tbird will request again. Close and reopen.

Configure the pop server to be pop.zoho.com or mailpop.zoho.com - they
both have the same IP address

Configure the account to use port 995 and SSL

This page^1 of screenshots and instructions has conflicting important
information: ^1
https://zohomail.wiki.zoho.com/Configuring-as-POP-Account.html

Thunderbird page which doesn't mention 995 & SSL
https://zohomail.wiki.zoho.com/Configure-in-Thunderbird.html

Outlook page which has 995 & SSL but has user vs address discrepancy
https://zohomail.wiki.zoho.com/Configuring-as-POP-Account.html

// Logon Information User name – Zoho username (without @zoho.com) //

That discrepancy needs to be resolved as does the conflicting
information zoho gives about pop.zoho.com vs mailpop.zoho.com which is a
trivial discrepancy when they both have the same IP; but the username
being the user part or the whole address I think might be important.

Gmail webmail will take either user or full email, but not many servers
will do that.



--
Mike Easter

[Todd and Margo Chester]

Thank you for the reply.

I am using pop.zoho.com and port 995 with SSL/TSL and normal password.
My user name does not contain the domain name (@zoho.com). (I noticed
the SMTP did not use the domain name).

I am wondering if their system did not catch me turning POP3 on
in webmail settings.

-T

[Mike Easter]

Todd Chester wrote:
User-Agent: Linux ... Thunderbird/12.0.1

> Mike Easter wrote:
>> Todd Chester wrote:
>>
>>> I just signed up for a zoho.com eMail account.
>>> I can log into mail.zoho.com no problem. While
>>> I was there, I went into settings and activated
>>> (all mail) my POP3 account.

That should work, but I suppose you could undo it and do it again.

>>> Sending of password did not succeed. Mail server
>>> pop.zoho.com responded: Too many parameters specified.

That message doesn't mean that the password manager gave the wrong
user/pass, it only means that the client-server transaction failed for
some reason or another.

>> Configure the pop server to be pop.zoho.com or mailpop.zoho.com -

>> Configure the account to use port 995 and SSL

> I am using pop.zoho.com and port 995 with SSL/TSL and normal password.
> My user name does not contain the domain name (@zoho.com). (I noticed
> the SMTP did not use the domain name).
>
> I am wondering if their system did not catch me turning POP3 on
> in webmail settings.

You can 'telnet test' the server by using openssh on your linux.

Open a terminal and enter

openssl

That should give you an openssl prompt.

Then use

s_client -connect pop.zoho.com:995

That should give you a 'whole buncha stuff' as you engage the popserver.

The use user youruser and pass yourpass one line at a time and the
server should say +OK to each.

I engaged the zoho pop server 'successfully' except that I didn't have
the correct user/pass so I could only get as far as the 'successful'
user interaction but not the pass.


--
Mike Easter

[Todd and Margo Chester]

Thank you!

I get past
USER xxxx
+OK

Then to
PASS xx yy zz (I have a number of spaces in my password)
-ERR Too many parameters specified.

xx\ yy\ zz
and
"xx yy zz"

gives the same error.

And, then I removed the spaces from my password, and
now it works. YIKES!!!

Thank you again for the help,
-T

[Mike Easter]

Todd Chester wrote:
> Mike Easter wrote:
>> Todd Chester wrote:

>>>>> Sending of password did not succeed. Mail server
>>>>> pop.zoho.com responded: Too many parameters specified.

>> openssl

>> s_client -connect pop.zoho.com:995

> Thank you!
>
> I get past
> USER xxxx
> +OK
>
> Then to
> PASS xx yy zz (I have a number of spaces in my password)

Actually I've never 'heard of' using spaces in a password and I've never
heard of whether or not zoho allows 'special characters' and if it does,
which special characters are allowed and which are not.

There are a lot of places, such as commands where spaces are not allowed.

I've never considered whether or not spaces are a reserved character in
user or pass -- it doesn't seem like a good idea because a space usually
indicates the 'end of something' in email transactions.

> -ERR Too many parameters specified.
>
> xx\ yy\ zz
> and
> "xx yy zz"
>
> gives the same error.
>
> And, then I removed the spaces from my password, and
> now it works. YIKES!!!

I'm not sure how to interpret YIKES!!! but I think I would change my
password to something without spaces and I would be 'careful' about
whether or not to use any special characters.

> Thank you again for the help,

YW.

--
Mike Easter

[Ron Hunter]

Spaces, as you discovered, aren't usually allowed in passwords for
servers. I wouldn't have thought to use them. I do use spaces for
encryption phrases, however.

[Todd and Margo Chester]

On 05/07/2012 02:35 PM, Ron Hunter wrote:
> Spaces, as you discovered, aren't usually allowed in passwords for
> servers. I wouldn't have thought to use them. I do use spaces for
> encryption phrases, however.

Here is the thing. Zoho allows spaces to be used on their web mail
and allows them on their SMTP server. For consistency's sake, they
should also them on POP.

[Mike Easter]

You would think.

Actually /I/ would think that the web, smtp, and pass registration
servers would /not/ accept the space character as a valid character in
the pass.

Then there would be consistency :-)


--
Mike Easter

[Jonas Eckerman]

It's not be that easy. For consistency, it'd be better if they simply
forbid spaces.

In SMTP passwords are usually sent Base64-encoded or hashed so there are
no spaces (or other "odd" characters) present in the data sent to the
server.

On the web passwords are sent using POST or GET requests where data is
URL-encoded (or, in some cases, MIME-encoded), so again spaces and other
"odd" characters are sent in a compatible way.

In POP3 oth the only standardized non-hashed password mechanism is
USER/PASS where the password is sent unencoded. Since a POP3 command
consists of a keyword and zero or more arguments separated by space with
(AFAIK) no provisions for quoting/escaping, a password with spaces seems
incompatible with USER/PASS authentication.

If the server in question supports APOP (wich uses hashes) it should be
possible to use passwords with spaces with it and Thunderbird.

Regards
/Jonas
--
Jonas Eckerman
http://www.truls.org/

[Todd and Margo Chester]

News back from Zoho tech support:

> Sorry about that.
> We have made a fix for this issue and the fix will be rolled out in
> our next update. Please bear with us until then.