What am I doing wrong?

[speardesign]

Mail can't verify the identity of "mail.speardesign.co.uk".

This is the warning message I receive every time I start Mail in Apple's Snow Leopard OS. I didn't get this problem while still on Tiger a few weeks ago.

It continues:

The certificate for this server was signed by an unknown certifying authority. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be "mail.speardesign.co.uk" which could put your confidential information at risk. Do you want to connect to the server anyway?

Under more information about the certificate, it asks if I want to trust "ram.host-ns.co.uk" and informs me the certificate expires (as of 12:30, Fri 16th April) on Wednesday, 13th April 04:25:40

I have been connecting without any problems and sending and receiving e-mail ok, but with a few hitches. From time to time Mail will refuse to send anything. I can still send e-mails from my @speardesign.co.uk accounts going through cPanel (using Horde), but Mail (after a few minutes of trying to send) gives me

Connections to the server “mail.speardesign.co.uk” on the default ports timed out.

Select a different outgoing mail server from the list below or click Try Later to leave the message in your Outbox until it can be sent.

This is with all the same settings as I was using, successfully, to send e-mails yesterday.

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks!

Ben

[Tom]

Hi Ben,

I'm a little late replying to this but the information will be useful for anybody else having the same issue.

You're receiving the identity error because you're using SSL for your mail connection. All SSL-enabled servers have a certificate which has a field - called the Common Name - that usually identifies the hostname of the server, for instance the server you're on is ram.host-ns.co.uk. When your Mail program connects to "mail.speardesign.co.uk" and receives a certificate for "ram.host-ns.co.uk" it raises an error as that's unexpected.

There are two solutions/workarounds that you can use, each with pros/cons:

Disable SSL so you're connecting without certificates
Pro: Gets rid of the error message
Pro: Will continue to work even if you're moved to a new server
Con: No SSL, potentially less security

Set the server hostname to ram.host-ns.co.uk
Pro: You can use SSL without any errors (except the first time you connect - you'll need to accept & remember the certificate)
Con: If we move you to a new server (which we do occasionally) you will be connecting to the wrong place

It's your choice which one you do. You'll have to choose security over convenience!

Tom