[TAG] 2c tip - debugging POP3 over ssl

[Jason Creighton]

On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 07:19:52AM +0000, Neil Youngman wrote:
> I was having problems with a googlemail account that I had set up. As 
> googlemail requires a login over ssl I was unable to simply telnet to port 
> 110 to try out the low level as protocol I would normally do.
> 
> Fortunately a little research revealed that I could use stunnel to create the 
> SSL connection.

Perhaps an easier way is to use socat, like I did:
http://linuxgazette.net/117/lg_launderette.html#nottag.4

The incantation is:

``
~$ socat - OPENSSL:pop.gmail.com:995,verify=0
+OK Gpop 10pf13694573nzo ready.
quit
+OK Bye
~$ 
''

Note: The version that I had when I wrote the bit that got into the
launderette accepted "verify=false", but my current version (1.4.3.0)
wants "verify=0".

Jason Creighton