As I was reading through the Python 2.6 documentation it also struck me that it seems SSLv2 will be supported out of the box, and there does not seem to be a way to turn that off. As far as I know the only way to write code that works with SSLv3 and all versions of TLS is to use the misleading SSLv23 mode, but you should then really turn off SSLv2 as well.

_m2crypto_wrap.c
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(207) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘type’
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘type’
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ‘)’ before ‘(’
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ‘)’ before ‘(’
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2091: function returns function
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2091: function returns function
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ‘{’ before ‘constant’
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2059: syntax error : ”
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘)’
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘)’
c:\openSSL\include\openssl\x509.h(929) : error C2059: syntax error : ‘type’
SWIG\_m2crypto_wrap.c(5861) : warning C4113: ‘void (__cdecl *)()’ differs in parameter lists from ‘v
oid (__cdecl *)(void *)’
error: command ‘”C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\bin\cl.exe”‘ failed with exit status 2

This is a known issue with OpenSSL. See http://rt.openssl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=1700&user=guest&pass=guest for information.

1. Download & install MinGW from http://www.mingw.org.
2. Download the swigwin distribution from http://www.swig.org and unzip it to a directory (c:\mingw\swig might not be a bad one)
3. Download & install OpenSSL: http://www.slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html
4. Copy the OpenSSL include files (c:\openssl\include) to the Python include directory (c:\pythonXY\include)
5. Copy the OpenSSL libraries (C:\OpenSSL\lib\MinGW) to the MinGW library directory (c:\pythonXY\libs)
6. Rename ssleay32.a and libeay32.a to libssleay32.a and liblibeay32.a respectively.
7. path c:\mingw\bin;c:\mingw\swig;%path%
8. setup.py build -c mingw32 bdist_wininst