title: Why need base64 in smtp
body: <p>Why do I need to encode login and password in base64, when using SMTP-AUTH.  Here is an example of my SMTP conversation</p>
  
  <pre><code>220 ALAN.CP.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service 
  ehlo 
  250 ALAN.CP.com Hello [10.10.1.1] more... 
  verbs 
  250 OK 
  auth login 
  334 VXNlcm5hbWU6 
  &lt;base64 encoded password&gt;
  334 UGFzc3dvcmQ6 
  &lt;base64 encoded password&gt;
  235 2.7.0 Authentication successful. 
  </code></pre>