how to point Mutt to a VPN connection

[Ian Zimmerman]

I am wondering whether it is possible to point Mutt to connect to a
VPN client that is listening at a local port whenever I want to have
direct imap access to my mail server. Currently I configure Mutt to
connect to the Gmail server using gmail directly with imap. But as
gmail is kind of blocked in my company so connection is slow. I have
to use a VPN. I have setup a VPN client locally. What is left to do is
to point Mutt to use that VPN client as a network interface for
connection so that things can speed up.

In addition to the advice already given by Patrick (good, but somewhat
indirect):

Run a long lived ssh process on the other side of the VPN with port
forwarding (that is, the -L option, or probably multiple -L options).
Bind to local address of that to the VPN server address (I'll call that
A_vpn). Point the remote to the Google (or whatever) servers. Then
tell mutt to use the fake servers on A_vpn you have just set up.

[Patrick Shanahan]

Hi,
I am wondering whether it is possible to point Mutt to connect to a
VPN client that is listening at a local port whenever I want to have
direct imap access to my mail server. Currently I configure Mutt to
connect to the Gmail server using gmail directly with imap. But as
gmail is kind of blocked in my company so connection is slow. I have
to use a VPN. I have setup a VPN client locally. What is left to do is
to point Mutt to use that VPN client as a network interface for
connection so that things can speed up.

use the vpn as your mail cache/server. install mutt and screen or tmux on
the vpn. use mutt on the vpn via ssh or an ssh tunner and screen or tmux.

or I believe better and what I do. connect to your home machine via ssh
to a running screen or tmux session and use mutt there to read your mail.