[NTLK] [ANN] mbedTLS 2.16.6 for NewtonOS

[Paul Guyot]

> From: Sylvain Pilet <sylvain at pilet.net>
> Subject: Re: [NTLK] [ANN] mbedTLS 2.16.6 for NewtonOS
> 
> I confirm the necessity to have an MP2100, I just tested mbedTLS (with your little utility) on an MP2000, result : as long as we stay on a non SSL/TLS connection it's ok, as soon as we try on a secure port it freezes the Newton MP2000.
> 
> Otherwise I tested on an MP2100, and in particular with MailV. Result it works very well, I was able to connect to an IMAP box on my site message-pad.net, which is hosted by ionos and I manage to receive and send emails on the secure ports! It's just incredible!
> You can see that the transaction requires a lot of effort from the MP2100 but it works without any problem.
> 
> On the other hand I noticed something strange: if there is a memory card in the second PCMCIA port, when we launch an SSL/TLS connection the Newton does a Reset! Not always, but here I am at 75% reset with a memory card present and 0% without card... it must be a too high demand of energy, I have however an original power supply of the MP2100 tested recently. 

Sylvain,

Thank you for your test.
To clarify things, the small MailVSSLPatch I wrote only enables SSL for receiving mails (over IMAP). For sending mails, no encryption is supported, as SMTP over TLS on port 465 is not standard, and encryption of SMTP traffic typically requires using the STARTTLS command. Upgrading a connection to SSL does work, but enabling it with Mail V requires more modification and I hope Simon Bell will update Mail V to support mbedTLS. Besides, most ISP do allow outgoing mail as long as it comes from their IPs.

After your mail I did try tests with Einstein with only 1MB of RAM and I confirm it just doesn't work. I even tried the test which disables certificate verification (which means root certificates are not loaded, saving about 300 kb), but it still fails. mbedTLS memory usage is low, but maybe not low enough. There might be some options, though, and we could investigate if there is a demand for it.

What kind of memory card did you use in the second PCMCIA port? Resets of the Newton do happen on memory aborts, which might be caused by a memory error or by a bug.

Paul