Lynx SSL with Hotmail [LONG]

["M.K.Pai" <pai@xxxxxxxx>]

Guys,

At the last meet, some chaps asked me about using lynx
with hotmail. Many of us, it seems, don't want to use X as
if it is not needed. I check my hotmail with lynx all
the time. It is so much quicker than Netscape that it is
unbelievable. There are some problems. Below I have 
tried to detail 'em.

NOTE : I use Debian. My methods are very standard. They should
		work with most unices - not just any Linux. If you have
		problems, feel free to ask.
		
As we all know, lynx does not support HTTPS URLs by default.
So the first step is to get the latest openssl dist from
http://www.openssl.org . Download it into /usr/local/. Untar it.
Installation is as easy as config, make,make test, make install.
There are no problems irrespective of which C lib version you are
using. It even works on UnixWare.

The next step is to get the lynx source from lynx.isc.org. Untar
the source from /usr/local/. You get a dir, say /usr/local/lynx-XXX/.
Lastly the same page has a link to the SSL patch. Download this patch
also into the /usr/local/. Now run the following command
patch -p0 < name-of-patch-file . Please note that this command
is to be run from the /usr/local/ and not /usr/local/lynx-XXX/.

Now the same routine. From /usr/local/lynx-XXX/, do a configure, 
make, make install . This will install lynx in the /usr/local/bin/.
If you want this to be your default lynx, you need to make a softlink 
somewhere. If you happen to have two distinct lynxes, you will have 
to provide the full path whenever accessing an https URL.

If you followed the instructions, you should now be having an
SSL-compliant lynx. Test it first on a non-Hotmail https url.
This is so that you know that there are no problems with your
lynx - when hotmail starts acting up. Later, test it on hotmail.

Now the problems.

First, hotmail bombards you with invalid cookies. You have to
accept all of them.

Second, hotmail then redirects you to a page that says something
like - "My God !! You aren't using IE 5.0 ??? Click anywhere
to download it - Or click this insignificant spot to continue." -
something like that. Well, you have to click that insignificant
spot to continue.

Third, every so often, hotmail decides that you have logged out
and needs you to re-login.

Well thats that !! I hope this helps those on the list who wanted
to do it in lynx. Now all that you need Netscape for are the
javascript-heavy sites.

Enjoy.

PAI

P.S : Is anyone working on a proggie to POP mail from hotmail ?

-MKP