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Stunnel

Note: Some people have reported problems with sending large messages or messages with attachments through Stunnel. As always, use at your own risk. If this could be a problem for you, we recommend that you use an application that has native support for SSL. Check in one of the AT&T Worldnet mail or news help newsgroups for clarification.

Stunnel lets you use a non-ssl client to get e-mail and news over a secure connection. The nice thing about the stunnel program is that it also allows those of us running alternative operating systems to get e-mail and news through the secure connection required to access some AT&T Worldnet services from another ISP. We've provided instructions for the following operating systems:

To configure Stunnel for Windows:

Download the latest version of Stunnel and the SSL library from the following page:

Note: These instructions are for Stunnel version 4 or higher.

Create a folder called C:\stunnel and place the Stunnel executable (*.exe) and the libssl32.dll and libeay32.dll files in it.

Note: If you've installed an earlier version of Stunnel and have put older versions of these files in your windows/system directory, delete the libssl32.dll and libeay32.dll in the windows/systems directory before proceeding.

Using a text editor like notepad, make a file containing what's in the text box below. Click the Select text button to highlight the text. Note: Javascript must be enabled for the button to work. Copy the information to your clipboard by right clicking on the highlighted text and selecting Copy. Paste the information into notepad. Note: Be sure that wordwrap is turned OFF. Save the file as "stunnel.conf" (including the quotes if you're using notepad) and place it in the C:\stunnel folder. Note: The quotes prevent notepad from adding .txt to the end of the filename.

Right-click the stunnel.exe file and select Create Shortcut. This will put a shortcut in the stunnel folder. If you want to run Stunnel only when you need it, copy this shortcut to your desktop. If you would like Stunnel to run whenever your computer is turned on so it will be available whenever you need it, follow the instructions below. Note: Running this program all of the time keeps certain ports open and could be a security risk. Your system will be more secure if you run it only when you need it.

Note: If you have a problem with the conf file when you run Stunnel, the txt file extension might be hidden and the file is really named stunnel.conf.txt. Open Explorer and select Folder Options from the Tools menu. On the View tab, uncheck Hide extensions for all file types. Then, locate the conf file and if it does have the txt extension, rename it to stunnel.conf

Windows 95/98/ME

Right click the taskbar and select Properties. Click the Start Menu Programs tab. Click the Advanced button. Click the plus (+) to the left of Programs. Locate the StartUp folder and copy the Stunnel shortcut into it. Reboot. You should see the Stunnel icon in the systray after your system restarts.

Windows NT/2000/XP

Right click the Stunnel shortcut. Enter a space and -install following the target path. The target should look something like this:

C:\stunnel\stunnel-4.00.exe -install

Click the shortcut. You will get notified that Stunnel has been installed as a service. Click the Start button and select Run. Type services.msc in the Open box and hit OK. Locate the Stunnel service, right click on it and select Start. You should see the Stunnel icon in the systray.

Note: Some e-mail applications and/or newsreaders do not need the stunnel application to access all of the the AT&T Worldnet servers over a secure connection. If you use one of these applications, just delete the un-needed lines from the stunnel.conf file. For example, if you use Eudora 5.1 for e-mail and Gravity for news, you only need the inetnews.worldnet.att.net lines. You can access the secure AT&T Worldnet servers using Eudora 5.1, but Stunnel is required using Gravity. Netscape needs the Stunnel application for e-mail, but doesn't need it for news.

Use the following settings in your e-mail or news application if the Stunnel application is required:

E-Mail - Important Information
POP3 server: localhost or 127.0.0.1 (Port 110)
User Name: emailid or emailid@worldnet.att.net*
Password: your e-mail password
SMTP server: localhost or 127.0.0.1 (Port 25)
User Name: emailid@worldnet.att.net
Password: your e-mail password
Newsgroups - Important Information
NNTP Server: localhost or 127.0.0.1 (Port 119)
User Name: emailid or emailid@worldnet.att.net*
Password: your e-mail password

* Your e-mail ID is the part of your e-mail address to the left of the @ sign.

Note: For most people, using 127.0.0.1 as the server names will work. However, in some cases using localhost was the only way to get it to work. Use whichever works for you. If neither of these work for you, try using your computer name. The location of this depends on your operating system, but is usually found somewhere in the Network information accessible through the Control Panel.

We've included instructions for using Stunnel with the following applications, but it should work with other windows e-mail and/or news applications as well:

Note: If you're using the Zone Alarm firewall, it is not necessary to allow Stunnel to run as a server in most cases.

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To configure Stunnel for Linux:

Note: These instructions are for Stunnel version 3.22 or lower. We hope to have instructions for version 4 soon.

Both openssl and Stunnel may be available as a package or add-on for your Linux distribution package. If your distribution package does not come with openssl (version 0.9.5a or later) pre-installed, download the source code from the following location and install it.

Once that is made and installed, go here for the Stunnel source code, version 3.22 or lower:

Unzip, untar, configure, make and install. None of the defaults were changed in this process.

Now you can issue the three (3) commands to get tunnels set up for mail and news. You'll see them in the box below. In some browsers, the lines will be broken. Each of the lines should begin with /usr and end with the port number. Copy and paste these 3 lines into a text document and save to your desktop as a bat file.

By default, stunnel runs in the background, so you will get a prompt returned after each command. If you would like to see it working, add -f to the end of each line.

I used the -f and found out I didn't have permissions as myself to take over the ports, which was why it wasn't working. You have two options. One is to change your user to root (su -) or use sudo. I install sudo by default on all my systems, so I used that, making the command lines below. In some browsers, the lines will be broken. Each of the lines should begin with sudo and end with the port number. Copy and paste these 3 lines into a text document and save to your desktop as a bat file.

Now you can use your e-mail and news clients of choice to get and receive both.

Use the following settings in your e-mail or news application:

E-Mail - Important Information
POP3 server: localhost or 127.0.0.1 (Port 110)
User Name: emailid or emailid@worldnet.att.net*
Password: your e-mail password
SMTP server: localhost or 127.0.0.1 (Port 25)
User Name: emailid@worldnet.att.net
Password: your e-mail password
Newsgroups - Important Information
NNTP Server: localhost or 127.0.0.1 (Port 119)
User Name: emailid or emailid@worldnet.att.net*
Password: your e-mail password

* Your e-mail ID is the part of your e-mail address to the left of the @ sign.

Note: For most people, using 127.0.0.1 as the server names will work. However, in some cases using localhost was the only way to get it to work. Use whichever works for you. If neither of these work for you, try using your computer name.

This was tested on:

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Need Additional Help?

If you can't find the answers you need, please try:

  1. The help file for the application you are using.
  2. Our FAQs.
  3. The AT&T Worldnet Help Newsgroups.
Note: AT&T DSL Service support is available at http://dslhelp.att.net

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