How to test S/POP3 without an email client

With plain POP3 this is rather simple, when you speak a little POP3. Secure POP3 wraps this through SSL, which is a liitle harder.
When you have openssl installed locally (on most Linux distro’s almost default, Simple to install through Cygwin on ‘doze) just issue

openssl s_client -connect mail.contoso.com:995
CONNECTED(00000003)
depth=0 /C=BE/ST=OVL/L=Redmond/O=contoso/OU=Systems/CN=webmail.contoso.com
verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate
verify return:1
[snip]
---
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is RC4-MD5
Server public key is 1024 bit
SSL-Session:
Protocol : TLSv1
Cipher : RC4-MD5
[snip]
Key-Arg : None
Start Time: 1159877246
Timeout : 300 (sec)
Verify return code: 21 (unable to verify the first certificate)
---
+OK Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 POP3 server version 6.5.7638.1 (mail.contoso.com) ready.

and go on as with regular POP3.