Setting outbound authentication to "none" in mail?

See if this works

Resolution

Mac OS X v10.6.2 and later changes how authentication works for receiving POP messages in Mail. Mail no longer will try a different authentication method if the preferred one did not work. This means if your POP mail server does not support the authentication scheme you have selected in Mail preferences, Mail will be unable to process incoming messages.

Ensure you have selected the appropriate authentication scheme selected in Mail preferences:

1. Open Mail if it isn't running.
2. From the Mail menu choose Preferences.
3. Click Accounts.
4. Select your affected POP account on the left side.
5. Click the Advanced tab on the right side.
6. Choose the correct authentication method from the pop-up menu. Contact your ISP or mail provider to determine what the correct settings should be if you don't know: Password, MD5 Challenge-Response, Kerberos Version 5 (GSSAPI), Authenticated POP (APOP), or NTLM. If you are affected by this issue, try Password or APOP first.

Have you tried deleting the mail account from your Mac and setting it up again with a fresh start? All fo your messages will come back once the account is set up again and hopefully you will have passowrd set back to "None".

If your mail regularly syncs with iCloud then they will always be in the cloud and will return once you re-establish the account.

You should also ALWAYS back up your accounts so that you don't lose them. Back up first if you can.

I just had a thought and wanted to ask you to try see if you can set up another POP account using the very same credentials. Apple will allow you to set up more than one account so see if it will let you duplicate accounts and see if it sets up with the correct settings

First, do not change the settings for the POP server, and do not delete the account. Your problem has to do with the outgoing mail server, not the incoming mail server.

From the menu bar, select

Window ▹ Connection Doctor

Look for the problem SMTP server in the window that opens. Double-click it. Another window will open, showing a list of all the outgoing mail servers you've defined. The one in question will be selected. Select the Advanced tab, then select None from the Authentication menu. Click OK. Close the windows you opened.

Are you able to post a svcreen shot of the mail set up so that I can see what you're looking at?

Go to the Apple in the upper left corner and select software update to see if there is anything out there for you.

Do you have any plans to upgrade to 10.8.2?