how to use smtp starttls() encryption?

[Xu, C.S.]

Gerhard,

> 'Sending out' is configured differently than receiving mail. Note that
> in my example, I sent mail to your domain, using your smtp server,
> which is thus already the 'final destination'.
> 
> No relaying involved here. The main point of SMTP auth is to prevent
> unauthorized relaying, and therefore you require it only for mail to
> domains other than yours.
> 

I did notice that, so I tried
	s.sendmail('testpythonsmtp at offleasecomputer.net',
'somebody at hotmail.com', 'test') 
It also works. This did include relaying, right? My question
is, what if other people run the same script on their computer,
the people don't know the password to my email account. Can
they still send out emails? Looks possible, because the script
didn't send out password at all. Then what's the point to use
TLS to prevent spamming?

Another questions is, will starttls() tackle with those servers
with SSL encryptions? To my knowledge, TLS is the next generation
of SSL.

Even the recentest doc on python.org doesn't have any explanation
on starttls() yet, :-(

Regards,

Xu

> For interoperability with the rest of the world, you cannot even do
> otherwise, because then you could receive no more mail.
> 
> > What the hell s.starttls() is doing? There just no slightest clue
> > in python lib reference.
> 
> There is. Be sure to read in the Python 2.2.x docs, as this feature
> didn't exist in earlier versions.
> 
> -- Gerhard