Stunnel

Support: Stunnel

To improve your privacy, you need to encrypt the connection between you and the server tusk.cotse.net. Stunnel provides the additional security between you and our server. As described at www.stunnel.org: "..Stunnel is a program that allows you to encrypt arbitrary TCP connections inside SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) available on both Unix and Windows. Stunnel can allow you to secure non-SSL aware daemons and protocols (like POP, IMAP, LDAP, etc) by having Stunnel provide the encryption, requiring no changes to the daemon's code."

Note that we have reports that stunnel and "IMSecure" from Zonelabs are not compatible. It appears that libeay32.dll that stunnel needs gets replaced by another version from Zone Labs. If you plan to use or you're currently using IMSecure and you're having trouble with stunnel, this could be the cause. This problem was submitted to Zonelabs, we haven't heard of a resolution.

Directions for installing and configuring stunnel and your browser settings are provided below.

Installing Stunnel

Configuring Stunnel

For those who prefer convenience, download cotse-proxy.zip file and read the README.txt file included in the zip archive. Note that the zip file includes the Cotse Stunnel PEM file as well as ctunnel for the usenet proxy.

For those that want to do everything themselves:

You will need to download the version for your Operating System (We recommend getting the newest version in the 4.x branch of Stunnel).

Also, you will need to download and unpack the OpenSSL libraries if you don't already have the libraries installed on your Operating System. The OpenSSL libraries are available at the download site above. You probably do not have these libraries installed. If you're unsure, chances are, you do not have the libraries. Again, we recommend the latest stable version of this package.

For those who wish to verify our stunnel certificate: download the "Cotse Stunnel PEM File" and place it in your stunnel directory.You will then edit the stunnel.conf file, as described in the right column.

Here's what we've done to get stunnel working on our Windows (win32) systems:

• We downloaded the newest stunnel and openssl packages (it includes the libraries).
• We put stunnel and unpacked the zip into the same directory. We unpacked/saved everything to c:\program files\stunnel\
• We created the file stunnel.conf in the same directory. The best way to create this file is in "notepad" and save it as stunnel.conf, not stunnel.txt. If you save it as stunnel.txt it MUST be renamed to stunnel.conf NOT stunnel.txt.conf. You must edit the name so it is "stunnel.conf". Renaming it is as simple as going to the c:\program files\stunnel\, right clicking on the file, click "Rename" and edit the filename. If you cannot see the entire filename, meaning you do not see "stunnel.conf" or "stunnel.txt" you may need to change your Windows Options. Depending on the version of Windows you are using, you can click "Tools -> Options", then click the "View" tab at the top, make sure you have "Hide extensions for known file types" unchecked. This will allow you to see the filename extension.

Here's how to complete the installation and configuration process:

• Open the stunnel.conf file in Notepad or your favorite text editor.
• Edit the stunnel.conf file so that it contains:

 

# stunnel client setup

client = yes

# Service-level configuration

[s1]

accept = 127.0.0.1:8082

connect = tusk.cotse.net:8081

• For those who want to verify our Stunnel certificate and who have downloaded the "Cotse Stunnel PEM File" and installed it in the stunnel directory, edit the stunnel.conf file to include:

  VERIFY = 2

  CAfile = C:\path\to\stunnel.pem

   

  So you should wind up with somethig similar to:

   

  client = yes

  VERIFY = 2

  CAfile = C:\Program Files\stunnel\cotse-stunnel.pem

  # Service-level configuration

  [s1]

  accept = 127.0.0.1:8082

  connect = tusk.cotse.net:8081

   

• Save the changes.
• Rightclick on stunnel.exe and create a shortcut
• Drag the newly created shortcut out to the desktop

Now start stunnel and change the proxy configuration in your browser:

• Where you had "tusk.cotse.net" for service address in the brower proxy settings, change it to 127.0.0.1
• Where you had 8080 as the port for the proxy service, change it to 8082
• If you had entered tusk.cotse.net and port 8080 for other services such as https and ftp, change those also to the new address and port.
• Save your browser changes.

Once you have configured your proxy with stunnel, you will have to start stunnel to be able to use your browser. As before, you will get a login box when you start a new browser session.