sTunnel for modern email protocols in old email clients

[Dave-H]

Any update on this @jumper?
I realise you're working on many other things too, but I just wondered if this is going to go any further.
Cheers, Dave.

[Dave-H]

@jumper

I take it no more progress with this?
I would love to think that using the Bugscreen plugin would potentially be an answer to this, if it can be modified to remove the content that is causing the display delay, but doing that is way out of my league I'm afraid.
Cheers, Dave.

[Dave-H]

I'm very pleased to finally report that the problem I had with Sky e-mails displaying very slowly in Eudora is fixed!


With the great help of @jumper, whose patience with this has been extraordinary, the fix turned out to be very simple indeed.
All I needed to do was to add -
 

127.0.0.1 assets.sky.com
127.0.0.1 helpforum.sky.com
127.0.0.1 www.sky.com

to the HOSTS file, and the messages now open after just a second or two of delay, instead of the 20 seconds or so it was taking before, which is fine with me!
They look fine and aren't apparently missing any elements either.
Amazing how you can take so long looking at ever more complex possible fixes, and the answer actually turns out to be something so simple!
Of course the Marks and Spencer e-mails will still be a problem, but now I know how to fix it when I next get one!
Cheers, Dave.

[Mathwiz]

On 8/18/2019 at 7:22 AM, Dave-H said:

All I needed to do was to add -
 

127.0.0.1 assets.sky.com
127.0.0.1 helpforum.sky.com
127.0.0.1 www.sky.com

to the HOSTS file, and the messages now open after just a second or two of delay, instead of the 20 seconds or so it was taking before, which is fine with me!

Well - as long as you never need to visit www.sky.com....

[Dave-H]

LOL, this is true!

Strangely, although sky.com is now blocked, helpforum.sky.com still works, albeit with the browser default font instead of Sky's font.
I can probably live with that, especially if I change it to Arial!
Of course what I need is some way of overriding the HOSTS file block just in Firefox, I obviously want it blocked in IE because that's what's causing the long display delay in Eudora.

[jumper]

Try:
90.216.128.5 www.sky.com

[Dave-H]

Thanks @jumper!
That doesn't work I'm afraid, the long delay comes back in Eudora with that entry.
Is there any way of getting Firefox to bypass the HOSTS file?
I don't need any sites (apart from MS Update of course) to work in IE, I wondered if it might be possible to get the sites working again in Firefox though, which would be fine.
Incidentally, just for completeness, I got the Marks and Spencer e-mails working without the delay by adding -

127.0.0.1 int-asset1.marksandspencer.com
127.0.0.1 int-asset1.cxnmarksandspencer.com

to the HOSTS file.
That does not seem to affect the look or functionality of the main M&S website fortunately.
Cheers, Dave.

[Dave-H]

OK, I've found a workaround that works in Firefox 68 on Windows 10 (I now have the same HOSTS file there).
After some investigation, I'm using the option in the Firefox settings "Enable DNS over HTTPS".
I'm using the default option, which is Cloudflare, and that has restored access to www.sky.com, and helpforum.sky.com.
This will affect all sites in Firefox of course, so I'm wondering if this might have any detrimental effects.

Unfortunately, I can't do the same thing in Windows XP, as that network option does not exist in Firefox 52.9 ESR!

[Dave-H]

OK, I think I've found a workaround for Firefox 52.
I read that using a proxy should override any settings in the HOSTS file, so I configured Firefox to use ProxHTTPSProxy, which up until now I've only been using in IE (and therefore in Eudora).
This worked fine, but the Sky URLs were still blocked, presumably because it's a local proxy system and still using localhost?
I then found that in the configuration file of HTTPSProxy you can set up alternative external proxies, so I found a working free UK proxy and added it to the file.

[PROXY https://51.38.71.101:8080]
*sky.com

This seems to work, although the sites are a bit slow to respond.
I also had to add skyid.sky.com, helpforum.sky.com, and myaccount.sky.com to the proxy exclusions in Firefox, or some elements of the sites still didn't work.

Does this sound reasonable as a workaround?

[Dave-H]

I've now found another workaround which doesn't involve everything in Firefox using ProxHTTPSProxy, which might be a bit more elegant.
I'm now using the "Automatic proxy configuration URL" option in the Firefox network settings and pointing it at a js file in my Firefox profile folder containing-

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) {

    // use proxy for specific domains
    if (shExpMatch(host, "www.sky.com|assets.sky.com|helpforum.sky.com"))
        return "PROXY 51.38.71.101:8080";

    // by default use no proxy
    return "DIRECT";
}

This redirects the three Sky URLs in the HOSTS file to a proxy server at 51.38.71.101 which seems to work fine.
Of course it does rely in that free proxy server always being online!
Anyone any more thoughts on this?
Cheers, Dave.

[jumper]

"return "DIRECT";" is intriguing. Use of function FindProxyForURL might be enough to bypass the HOSTS file.

Try return "DIRECT"; //"PROXY 51.38.71.101:8080";
If that works, then bypass HOSTS but use no proxies for best performance:

function FindProxyForURL(url, host) { return "DIRECT"; }

[Dave-H]

@jumper

Thanks again, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to work.
As I'm sure you gathered, I found that script on another forum, and modified it to meet my needs.
It was offered to someone who wanted to use a specific proxy server for a specific URL, which of course it's fine for.
My modified version makes Firefox use the stated proxy server for the domains that we put in the HOSTS file, which bypasses the HOSTS file for those domains so they work again without being blocked. All fine, but of course I am now relying on that free online proxy server always working, and I've already found, sometimes it doesn't!
Even when it does work, it does considerably slow down access to those sites.
Your suggestion, which I think I'm right in saying should make Firefox think that it's always using a proxy when in fact it isn't, and will therefore still make it bypass the HOSTS file for all sites, unfortunately doesn't seem to work, I just get the insecure connection error page on all the Sky sites.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Dave-H
Addition

[Mathwiz]

That's an elegant solution, @Dave-H! If FF accesses one of the three sites blocked in HOSTS, it instead goes to the proxy server you specified, which does its own DNS lookup (and presumably doesn't have those three sites blocked)! Anything else goes direct.

[Dave-H]

That's right, all I need now is a free proxy server that I know will always work!
Any suggestions gratefully received........

[Ben Markson]

3 hours ago, Dave-H said:

That's right, all I need now is a free proxy server that I know will always work!
Any suggestions gratefully received........

Assuming I've followed this correctly could you use your own personal proxy server like The Proxomitron?

Ben.