Googlemail and SMTP settings

It is always a very confusing topic if it comes to set-up of the SMTP server for the purpose of sending emails from a different domain. However it is sometimes necessary and the best of all - it works too.
I was fighting with an issue described above for quite some time and finally found a semi-OK solution on these two posts

• How do I configure Google Gmail to have a different sender?
• Thunderbird 1.5 on the Gmail Help Center

I hope that was helpful and if somebody knows the trick how to iron out the caveats connected with the solution above you are more than welcome to post a reply.
Cheerio.

P.S.: since we are talking about Gmail here is a blog post which is interesting from two points of view. First, people start using https for Gmail. This increases the security and makes it more reliable. Second, one can see how rigorous is China with web contents it allows for public use.