Quoting from Nerijus Baliunas's mail on Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 04:32:32PM +0200:
No, it is not equivalent IMO. If server advertises STARTTLS/STLS, we _should_
try to use it. It is not the same as trying to connect to another port first
- the server actually advertises STARTTLS when logging normally, as one
of authentication methods, so we use it. Confusion probably arises because
STARTTLS is not an authentication method. No authentication
information is passed with STARTTLS. STARTTLS is an extra security
feature. In fact, in imap, all authentication methods are advertised
as AUTH=method. STARTTLS is just advertised as STARTTLS.
If STARTTLS should be used implicitly, I would like an option to *not*
use STARTTLS. Note that your solution of using 'auth password' to do
this is not correct (even though it works now) as STARTTLS is not
related to authentication at all.
Sunil Shetye.