sendmail POP ssl sasl

[Erik <ethorsson_(_at_)_neoprimitive_(_dot_)_net>]

I'm drowning here...

I'm sure it is not out of the ordinary to desire a mail server which I can connect to from anywhere on the Internet I happen to be, authenticate, and transfer my mail securely.

I am having a hell of a time figuring out how to do it though.  From the 10,000 pages I have read, it looks like SASL can provide the authentication, but you still need to encrypt the transmission with SSL (stunnel).  

Someone please just tell me if that is an accurate description of what I need to be setting up, and I will go toil on my own.  I've been around the web and back again and now I'm so full of OpenBSD 2.x-era how-tos that I'm not even sure anymore about which components I'm trying to install, or if I do or don't have to recompile sendmail.

I'm running 3.6 release. 

Thanks for your advice or flames, or whatever you deem necessary to send me.

-E

P.S.  Here are some links I've run into, for posterity:

http://www.dorkzilla.org/~dlg/sendmail/
http://www.backwatcher.org/writing/howtos/obsd-sendmail+sasl.html
http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/auth.html
http://rrm3.livejournal.com/4484.html
http://student.science.uva.nl/~talerven/software/add-popa3d-user/pop3-ssl-using-popa3d-HOWTO