OS X Mountain Lion Server For Dummies

Authenticating and Encrypting Mail

Mountain Lion Server lets you select the method to authenticate clients and encrypt passwords when they sign in to the e-mail server; it can also encrypt e-mail messages with the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) standard. OS X Server offers different methods of authentication for different mail clients and for different sources of user accounts.

Securing mail authentication

The Server app gives you options for password encryption for SMTP and IMAP/POP. Which you choose depends on what your e-mail clients support and where the user accounts are housed: in Open Directory, Active Directory, local accounts on the Mac, or a mix. Mountain Lion Server will choose an authentication method based on how those accounts are usually authenticated, but you can change the authentication methods.

To choose an authentication method, go to the Mail pane in the Server app (refer to Figure 13-5) and click the Edit button next to Authentication. In the Authentication dialog, click the Authentication menu to display the choices shown in Figure 13-7.

Figure 13-7: The first level of mail authentication settings.

Here you see choices for Open Directory, Active Directory, and Local Users:

Open Directory: Kerberos and Digest (CRAM-MD5)

Active Directory: Kerberos and cleartext ...