Re: Why can't I get PGP from MIT

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 6:47 PM 1/6/96, post wrote:
>MIT won't let me get PGP or PGPhone.  I know their server
>went down awhile back but, I have tried them several times
>and sent several e-mail requests.  I thought maybe I was
>missing something obvious or maybe they are just really
>busy.  I keep being told I'm not in the U.S.

As I recall, they don't tell you you're "not in the U.S.," they tell you
they cannot conclude in the affirmative that you _are_ in the U.S.

This has to do with whether they have a record (DNS) of your site, blah
blah. And the message about sending them e-mail affirming your status,
etc., points out that the mail is handled manually and may not be gotten to
for a while.

This happened to me, with PGPhone, when they could not confirm my ISP
(got.net) to be a U.S.-based service. I simply grabbed one of the
"otherwise available" copies (it was either posted publically, or available
at an offshore site, I forget which). This was several months ago, the day
after it was released. I fired it up, concluded I was missing some pieces
needed to make it work, and put it aside for the time being.

For PGP, I always go to the offshore sites anyway, on principle.

These sites are listing with numbing frequency in all the usual places.

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."