SLRN may be used to access a secure server using SSL. To do this, SSL support must be enabled. Compiling SLRN with SSL support ------------------------------- To build slrn with SSL support, you must first obtain and install the OpenSSL library from http://www.openssl.org. Beware that some countries may have import/export regulations concerning such software. If you get arrested, do not call me! Just as important, do not contact me if you have trouble compiling OpenSSL --- I have nothing to do with the development of OpenSSL. After installing OpenSSL, configure slrn for SSL support, e.g., ./configure --with-ssl By default, OpenSSL will install itself in /usr/local/ssl. If you install it elsewhere, e.g., $HOME/ssl, then use: ./configure --with-ssl=$HOME/ssl After compiling it, `slrn --version' should indicate SSL support. Using SLRN with secure servers ------------------------------ As far as slrn is concerned, only those servers whose names are prefixed with "snews://" are secure and require SSL. So, to access a secure server such as netscape's secnews.netscape.com, simply prefix the NNTP host name with "snews://". For instance, slrn -h snews://secnews.netscape.com --create In your .slrnrc file, you may want to add a line such as: server "snews://secnews.netscape.com" ".newsrc-netscape" to indicate that the file ".newsrc-netscape" should be used for this server. That's it!