Ruby send mail with smtp - ruby

Question

I'm trying to send simple email via Ruby (no rails) on OS X, with XCode (which installs Ruby.) But I'm running into a problem with my smtp server which requires the email client to check mail before sending as a form of authentication.
How can I get Ruby to authenticate with the smtp server in a "POP" fashion before I can send mail? Not download mail; I only want to send html formatted email (eventually via Applescript calling Ruby, because Applescript doesn't support smtp), but the server requires that I check mail before I send.
Edit 4/05/10:
Well, that's embarrasing. Turned out to be simpler; I was trying to make it more complex than it needed to be. Even though my mail server requires pop before smtp, this sends OK:
require 'net/smtp'
message = <<MESSAGE_END
From: Private Person <me#fromdomain.com>
To: A Test User <test#todomain.com>
Subject: SMTP e-mail test
This is a test e-mail message.
MESSAGE_END
Net::SMTP.start('mail.mydomain.com', 25) do |smtp|
smtp.send_message message,
'mark#mydomain.com',
'mark#mydomain.com'
end
Edit 4/04/10:
With this I get a 500 unrecognized command error; the pop server is responding, though.
require 'net/smtp'
require 'net/pop'
message = <<MESSAGE_END
From: Private Person <me#fromdomain.com>
To: A Test User <test#todomain.com>
Subject: SMTP e-mail test
This is a test e-mail message.
MESSAGE_END
Net::POP3.start('mail.mydomain.com', 110, 'mark#mydomain.com', 'password') do |pop|
// If this line is included,
// I get a printout of the number
// of emails on the server
// right before the error:
//
// puts pop.n_mails end
Net::SMTP.start('mail.markratledge.com',
25,
'localhost',
'mark#mydomain.com', 'password', :plain) do |smtp|
smtp.send_message message, 'mark#mydomain.com',
'mark#mydomain.com'
end
end

Answer 1

POP before SMTP isn't one of the authentication types supported by Net::SMTP so I think you're going to have to use Net::POP3 to do your POP3 login e.g.
require 'net/pop'
pop = Net::POP3.start(addr, port, account, password)
pop.finish
Net::POP3 is in the Standard Library so should be available anywhere that Net::SMTP is.

Answer 2

If that doesn't make your server happy then Net::Telnet will let you send the raw commands yourself.