Disclaimer:
I didn't invent the wheel here, I am just condensing bits and pieces of information that I have learned from other people here in the forum. It took me half of a day to finally figure this out. I hope that I can save someone else the time and the effort by condensing the steps that worked for me. I used Synaptic to install "Pan" and "stunnel4". I am assuming that you already know how to do that. I am not a pro so I may not know how to troubleshoot any issues that you encounter. I am sharing what I have learned in an effort to begin to repay the community.


Getting Stunnel4 to work:
I am only insterested in SSL for my newsgroup reader. I dont use an email client or anything else listed in stunnel so I commented-them-out in order to avoid any potential problems related to services that I don't use. If you use any of the services, feel free to adjust them to fit your needs (remove the ";" in front of the various service level configurations).

Edit the stunnel config file:
Code:
sudo gedit /etc/stunnel/stunnel.conf
I have enclosed my stunnel.conf file. If you copy it, be sure to replace "YOUR.NEWSGROUP.HERE:PORT" with your required address and port as provided by your service provider.
Code:
; Sample stunnel configuration file by Michal Trojnara 2002-2006
; Some options used here may not be adequate for your particular configuration
; Please make sure you understand them (especially the effect of chroot jail)

; Certificate/key is needed in server mode and optional in client mode
; cert = /etc/stunnel/mail.pem
;key = /etc/stunnel/mail.pem

; Protocol version (all, SSLv2, SSLv3, TLSv1)
sslVersion = SSLv3

; Some security enhancements for UNIX systems - comment them out on Win32
chroot = /var/lib/stunnel4/
setuid = stunnel4
setgid = stunnel4
; PID is created inside chroot jail
pid = /stunnel4.pid

; Some performance tunings
socket = l:TCP_NODELAY=1
socket = r:TCP_NODELAY=1
;compression = rle

; Workaround for Eudora bug
;options = DONT_INSERT_EMPTY_FRAGMENTS

; Authentication stuff
;verify = 2
; Don't forget to c_rehash CApath
; CApath is located inside chroot jail
;CApath = /certs
; It's often easier to use CAfile
;CAfile = /etc/stunnel/certs.pem
; Don't forget to c_rehash CRLpath
; CRLpath is located inside chroot jail
;CRLpath = /crls
; Alternatively you can use CRLfile
;CRLfile = /etc/stunnel/crls.pem

; Some debugging stuff useful for troubleshooting
debug = 7
output = /var/log/stunnel4/stunnel.log

; Use it for client mode
client = yes

; Service-level configuration

[nntp]
accept = localhost:119
connect = YOUR.NEWSGROUP.HERE:PORT

; [pop3s]
; accept  = 995
; connect = 110

; [imaps]
; accept  = 993
; connect = 143

; [ssmtp]
; accept  = 465
; connect = 25

; [https]
; accept  = 443
; connect = 80
; TIMEOUTclose = 0

; vim:ft=dosini
Edit stunnel4:
Code:
sudo gedit /etc/default/stunnel4
Set "Enabled=" to "1" (without quotes):
Code:
# /etc/default/stunnel
# Julien LEMOINE <speedblue@debian.org>
# September 2003

# Change to one to enable stunnel
ENABLED=1
FILES="/etc/stunnel/*.conf"
OPTIONS=""

# Change to one to enable ppp restart scripts
PPP_RESTART=0

Getting Pan to work with stunnel4:
Start Pan and enter the following settings for your secure newsgroup server:

Set the Location Address to: "localhost" (without the quotes).
Set the port to: 119
Enter your Login information if required by your service provider.


Start stunnel4:
Code:
/etc/init.d/stunnel4 start
Now start Pan and you should be able to access your newsgroup server through SSL.


Thanks to Badtothebone for this helpful post:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...83&postcount=7

And thanks to chrroessner for this very enlightening post:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...31&postcount=1