I have a user with a long-stable application who began using a feature that emails job performance PDFs from to a list of employees. She last used the feature in December 2023 without any problem. However, today when she sent a test email to herself, she received this message:

"Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport system."

Any ideas what could cause this within the West Wind context? I haven't touched this part of the code in a while, so it's old, using West Wind version 5.56. They won't have a problem updating, but I would rather understand what I might need to do beyond that. Thanks!

That sounds like an SSL/TLS protocol error. If you're running 5.5 it's likely that your mail provider has switched to requiring a later protocol (TLS1.2 most likely) for TLS secure connections.

What OS are you on where this error occurs? In theory the protocol should be picked up automatically if you're on Windows 11, however, I'm not sure what the default protocol settings are in wwSmtp in that old version. It works in newer versions which explicitly enable all the newer protocols.

There's more info in the following post including a workaround for wwDotnetBridge and older versions like your's (it's automatically set to work in newer versions).

• Web Connection and TLS 1.2

+++ Rick ---

She was using Windows 11. I'll have to ask what version she was using the last time, because she transitioned from 10 sometime in the last few months.

Meanwhile, if we upgrade the West Wind software my records show that I purchased "Internet client tools" back in 2011. I'm assuming that means a new update would be for the "West Wind Internet & Client Tools 6.0 Version Upgrade" for $149. However, I'm wondering what the label "inactive" means on the pricing page.

Windows 10 or 11 fully supports TLS 1.2 so that should be fine. However very old versions of Client Tools are not set to enable TLS 1.2 support, so even though the OS and .NET support it by default it may not work by mere virtue of the flags not being set or set incorrectly for older versions. I know the newer versions explicitly enable all protocols above SSL3. Old versions can override this by explicitly setting the flags on startup via wwDotnetBridge as outlined in the blog post. But probably a good idea to update as there are many improvements since those original versions of wwSmtp and the .NET code that it calls.

Can't say for sure though whether that's the problem, but it's very likely given the error message - it's a connection problem.

As to the upgrade: The 6.0 upgrade page in the store is inactive because the current version is 7.0. The correct link is:

• Purchase West Wind Client Tools Upgrade

+++ Rick ---

Thanks. Note, though, that I'm trying to use my existing account and it won't accept the password, then won't send a recovery email for me to change it. An error message appeared: "Couldn't create a Validation Id." I double-checked my profile and the email address matches. Tried in both Firefox and Chrome.

Can you send me a private message with your old login information? I assume you created a new account.

I double checked just to be sure to do password recovery and I had no issue sending a recovery email and creating a new password using Forgot your Password?

+++ Rick ---