LOGIN -ERR Authentication Failed Problem

[REDSKEETER]

I am using PEAR for the first time and am working on reading a POP3 mailbox to retrieve the messages and process them further.

I appear to connect to the pop3 mail server OK or at least no error is thrown. Where I am going crazy is trying to get the login() to work. This is the error returned: return value of the attempt was: bool(false); error message from PEAR was "-ERR Login failed."

I've read about everything on the web and tried a zillion ways but I don't get anything using the loging($user, $ passwd, $auth) wiht $auth set to TRUE or any other authentication method or even left out.

It makes me suspicious that maybe the original connect() is not working but not producing an error.

What am I missing and is there a way to get a better idea of exactly what is causing the login problem?

Help is appreciated like crazy... since I am headed that way right now....