How to use SSL in TcpClient class

Question

In the .NET framework there is a class TcpClient to retrieve emails from an email server. The TcpClient class has 4 constructors to connect with the se

Answer 1

You have to use the SslStream along with the TcpClient then use the SslStream to read the data rather than the TcpClient.

Something along the lines of:

        TcpClient mail = new TcpClient();
        SslStream sslStream;

        mail.Connect("pop.gmail.com", 995);
        sslStream = new SslStream(mail.GetStream());

        sslStream.AuthenticateAsClient("pop.gmail.com");

        byte[] buffer = new byte[2048];
        StringBuilder messageData = new StringBuilder();
        int bytes = -1;
        do
        {
            bytes = sslStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);

            Decoder decoder = Encoding.UTF8.GetDecoder();
            char[] chars = new char[decoder.GetCharCount(buffer, 0, bytes)];
            decoder.GetChars(buffer, 0, bytes, chars, 0);
            messageData.Append(chars);

            if (messageData.ToString().IndexOf("") != -1)
            {
                break;
            }
        } while (bytes != 0);

        Console.Write(messageData.ToString());
        Console.ReadKey();

EDIT

The above code will simply connect via SSL to Gmail and output the contents of a test message. To log in to a gmail account and issue commands you will need to do something along the lines of:

        TcpClient mail = new TcpClient();
        SslStream sslStream;
        int bytes = -1;

        mail.Connect("pop.gmail.com", 995);
        sslStream = new SslStream(mail.GetStream());

        sslStream.AuthenticateAsClient("pop.gmail.com");

        byte[] buffer = new byte[2048];
        // Read the stream to make sure we are connected
        bytes = sslStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        Console.WriteLine(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer, 0, bytes));

        //Send the users login details
        sslStream.Write(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("USER USER_EMAIL\r\n"));
        bytes = sslStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        Console.WriteLine(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer, 0, bytes));

        //Send the password                        
        sslStream.Write(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("PASS USER_PASSWORD\r\n"));
        bytes = sslStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        Console.WriteLine(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer, 0, bytes));

        // Get the first email 
        sslStream.Write(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("RETR 1\r\n"));
        bytes = sslStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        Console.WriteLine(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(buffer, 0, bytes));

Obviously, without all the duplication of code :)