+1 from this xwiki-user. I think this is a very important and necessary patch! I don't think it's fair to call this a "hack" when it is in fact a patch to existing code to allow for functionality whose absence is a total showstopper for many Xwiki installations. The fact that patching for such common-use-case functionality isn't "clean" signifies the need for refactoring, and future development of a grand unified mail plugin. Lilianne also authored the previously accepted authentication patch http://jira.xwiki.org/jira/browse/XPMAIL-10 , providing solutions to issues with modern SMTP use-case scenarios: http://n2.nabble.com/Email-system-in-xwiki-td2566794.html (Mar 31, 2009). Thanks for these most useful patches Lilianne E. Blaze! It would be great if these could be given the appropriately high level of priority and scheduled for release with 1.8.1 or 1.8.2 . Niels http://nielsmayer.com