diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index bfd7cb3..b8639a6 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -7,12 +7,19 @@ Changelog for Isso
 - Nothing changed yet.
 
 
-0.9.7 (unreleased)
+0.9.8 (unreleased)
 ------------------
 
 - Nothing changed yet.
 
 
+0.9.7 (2014-09-25)
+------------------
+
+- fix SMTP authentication using CRAM-MD5 (incorrect usage of
+  `smtplib`), #126
+
+
 0.9.6 (2014-08-18)
 ------------------
 
diff --git a/docs/docs/quickstart.rst b/docs/docs/quickstart.rst
index 4e8a458..126fe82 100644
--- a/docs/docs/quickstart.rst
+++ b/docs/docs/quickstart.rst
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ a quickstart quide that covers the most common setup. Sections covered:
     :local:
     :depth: 1
 
-
 Configuration
 -------------
 
@@ -68,8 +67,8 @@ on *Discussions* and select the *Export* tab. You'll receive an email with your
 comments. Unfortunately, Disqus does not export up- and downvotes.
 
 To export comments from your previous WordPress installation, go to *Tools*,
-export your data. WordPress WXR import is quite new and may not work for you;
-please report any failures.
+export your data. It has been reported that WordPress may generate broken XML.
+Try to repair the file using ``xmllint`` before you continue with the import.
 
 Now import the XML dump:
 
diff --git a/isso/ext/notifications.py b/isso/ext/notifications.py
index 70df554..ce2c6d8 100644
--- a/isso/ext/notifications.py
+++ b/isso/ext/notifications.py
@@ -71,8 +71,8 @@ class SMTP(object):
                 self.client.starttls()
 
         if self.conf.get('username') and self.conf.get('password'):
-            self.client.login(self.conf.get('username'),
-                              self.conf.get('password'))
+            self.client.login(self.conf.get('username').encode('ascii', errors='ignore'),
+                              self.conf.get('password').encode('ascii', errors='ignore'))
 
         return self.client