gweepnet online help : secure pop with sidehack

One of the problems with the POP protocol is that it passes passwords in the clear. This is often just fine for checking your corporate/ISP mail server while sitting on the same physical network. It is really a Bad Thing for access to a remote server like sidey.

Most modern POP clients allow for secure transactions. This could be described as "Secure POP", "Transport layer Security" (TLS), "SSL POP", or "Required Alternate Port". This is THE BEST option for you to use due to the lack of complexity and direct integration on the client side. Below we have some compiled tips for a few clients we know people use including Eudora and Outlook. If you need help, have corrections or info for a different client then please do drop a line to system.

If you are using an old client that does not expressly support this, you need to take these steps.

At this writing (Dec 2004) we are not offering any off-net SMTP relaying, so you MUST use your local (corporate, ISP, etc) smart SMTP server for sending mail.

Eudora (verions 5.1 and later):

1. see if their instructions are still online or search their support site for the appropriate instructions for your version.
2. Otherwise, select the Tools Menu, then the Options item to open their Personalities settings.
3. Select the desired 'personality' for your gweep account and its Incoming Mail tab.
4. Under Secure Sockets when Receiving select Required, Alternate Port
5. That's it. Be sure your changes get saved.

• Under Windows if you get large email messages, legit attachments or even huge electronic tins of spam you might have slow transactions. If you see "Error reading from network - tired of waiting for server" or variations on "Eudora got tired of waiting" messages, then you need to increase the network buffers. Under Tools, select Options, select Advanced Network. The default is only about 4k. You should be set at least to 8k (8192) if not higher. If you routinely get large attachements crank it up higher (16384, 40960, etc) until you don't see the problems. Keep in mind your memory limits.
• If you use leave mail on server, please have a reasonable setting for delete mail from server. The POP process has to scan through old messages to get to finding new ones for you to download. So if, for example your POP transactions slow dramatically over the course a month, you should set to delete mail on the server that is 30 days older or less.

Outlook (outlook 2002):

1. see if their instructions are still online or search their support site for the appropriate instructions for your version.
2. Otherwise, select the Tools Menu then open the Email Accounts settings.
3. Select the profile for your gweep account and its Advanced tab.
4. Under Server Port Numbers for incoming server (POP3) select This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)
5. That's it. Be sure to select OK to save your changes.

• If you see timeout errors waiting for response -typified by error codes 0x8004210A, 0x800CCC0B, or 0x8004210B- then check this article to see if you'd prefer to apply a service pack or modify your Registry entries to compensate.

Best for old clients (unix-y or Windows or whatever) that don't have native support as described above:

1. install stunnel. yes it is available for multiple platforms (yes, including Windows)
2. Run: stunnel -c -d 110 -r sidehack.gweep.net:995 on the client side
3. point your POPmail client at the host on your side.

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