Said Bakr, as you pointed out, there were demands in using stunnel to let Avast check Gmail messages. However, after Gmail began to use their own anti-virus on their server, the majority seems to be satisfied with it and don’t feel it is necessary to let Avast check the messages.
The problem is that if you are not able to figure out by yourself from the links that are already provided, you will unlikely be able to troubleshoot if something goes wrong. I warned. If you still feel you need stunnel, read on.
Step 1 Installation of Stunnel
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Download the latest stunnel from the official site. At the moment, it’s stunnel-4.20-installer.exe.
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After executing the installation, download Windows Binaries for Open-SSL. Here is the site. This file will do.
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Unzip all the three files (libeay32.dll, libssl32.dll, openssl.exe) into the stunnel folder (By default, it’s C:\Program Files\Stunnel). When prompted, overwrite all.
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In the same folder, you will find stunnel.conf. Rename it to stunnel.txt or something else.
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Still in the same folder, right-click on the blank and open context menu. From the menu, create a new txt file and open it.
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Copy and paste the code below.
# GMail
client=yes
debug=debug
# POP3
[gmail-pop3s]
accept=localhost:120110
connect=pop.gmail.com:995
# SMTP
[gmail-smtps]
accept=localhost:12025
connect=smtp.gmail.com:465
Or, if you are using 587 for SMTP,
# GMail
client=yes
debug=debug
# POP3
[gmail-pop3s]
accept=localhost:120110
connect=pop.gmail.com:995
# SMTP
[gmail-smtps]
protocol=smtp
accept=localhost:12025
connect=smtp.gmail.com:587
The line “debug=debug” will be unnecessary once everything begins to work correctly.
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Save and close the file.
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Rename the file to “stunnel.conf”.
Step 2 Configure Avast Internet Mail Provider
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Left click on Avast blue icon at the task tray to call “OnAccess Protection Control”.
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Select internet mail
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‘Customize’
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Go to the ‘Redirect’ tab
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Uncheck “Ignore local connection”
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Hit “OK” and exit the configuration.
Step 3 Configure Email Client
Now the problem is I don’t know how to configure Outlook Express. However, general instruction is.
1.Change POP3 and SMTP servers to “Localhost.”
2.Change the ports for POP3 and SMTP to 110 and 25 respectively.
3.Disable secure connections for both connections.
Also, I searched the forum and found this thread for OE configuration with Stunnel.
Outlook Express settings
Pop3 server: 127.0.0.1
Smtp server: 127.0.0.1
Account name: <gmail name without @gmail.com>
smtp authorization: full gmail name@gmail.com and password
pop3 port:120110 (uncheck SSL)
smtp port: 12025 (uncheck SSL)
Timeout: 5 minutes
Everything above can be different depending on your environment and this is why I didn’t recommend you to using Stunnel if you cannot figure out by reading some resources. For example, above configuration won’t work if you are not using NT system, which enables Avast! Providers to be transparent.
[Edit]
The reason why I don’t like this stunnel business is that it is designed for puncturing some ports. First, I thought I shouldn’t mess with the mail configuration, however, now I think carelessly opened ports are much more dangerous. I checked it now I found the configuration could keep the port 25 open, which is, depending your configuration of firewall. This is not good from security standard. Now I am inclined to recommend giving up the usage of stunnel.
Or, if you still dare to use stunnel, at least, it would be suitable to use Avast port such as 12025, 12110. I edited my post.