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WinSock Remailer Version ALPHA 1.3 Now Available



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Y'all:

Version ALPHA 1.3 of the WinSock Remailer is now available at Lance 
Cottrell's Export Controlled Crypto Site at:

  http://www.obscura.com/crypto.html

After you get past the crypto control and into ftp site, look in the
DOS directory for the file WSA13.ZIP.

You can find more information on my webpage at:

  http://www.c2.net/~winsock/

which I will be updating tonight.

What's new in this release:
- --------------------------

1)  Support for e-mail accounts that are "Shared" or "Exclusive".  This
    function allows a remailer operator to share a personal e-mail account 
    with the remailer.  The way this function works is that messages 
    without valid remailer headers are NOT deleted from the mail spool
    file (the file where your messages are stored at your Internet Service
    Provider).  Instead, the remailer only deletes messages with valid
    remailer headers from the mail spool, allowing another e-mail client
    (such as Eudora or Pegasus Mail) to retrieve the non-remailer 
    messages.

    If the e-mail account is "Exclusive", the remailer will download all
    messages from the mail spool file and delete them automatically.

    Note that if you use the "Shared" function, you should always operate
    the remailer FIRST, and then your e-mail client.  This way, the 
    remailer removes the remailer messages, leaving the personal messages
    (and improperly formatted remailer messages) for your e-mail client
    to process.  You will have to halt the remailer while using your
    e-mail client.

    If, for some reason, you manage to download a message meant for the
    remailer, simply save it to a file (in ASCII format) with a filename
    of the form INxxxxxx.yyy, where:

      xxxxxxx is a six-digit number (doesn't matter what number)
      yyy is a three-digit number (doesn't matter what number)

    and save it to the INMAIL directory.  Make sure there is no other 
    message with that filename so that you won't overwrite an existing
    message.  The remailer will process the message normally on the next 
    batch.

    You will probably want to kill all rejected messages, as each batch
    of messages that are processed will download each non-remailer 
    message every time.  Set the remailer to KEEP rejected messages until
    you feel comfortable with the remailer's operation, so you can
    recover any personal messages in the REJECT directory, if there is
    a problem with the remailer.

2)  Support for message pool size on the Outgoing Mail dialog box.  I
    recommend that the pool size be set to 3 for lightly used remailers
    (less than 100 messages per day) and 5 to 10 for heavily used remailers.

3)  PGP only operation now works properly.

4)  Separate secret key ring file for the remailer's key now works 
    properly.  The key file must be located in the PGP directory and
    only the filename should be used in the edit box on the PGP Options
    dialog box (the path is automatically appended to the filename).

5)  The rare problem of the remailer locking up while retrieving messages
    from the POP server has been fixed.

6)  Messages with subject help are now accepted along with remailer-help,
    to send the remailer help file.

Features not yet implemented and known problems:
- -----------------------------------------------

1)  Latent-Time is not operational; the header is ignored.

2)  Message size limit is not implemented.

3)  Help file is not implemented.  Use my webpage at:
    http://www.c2.net/~winsock/setup.html instead.

4)  Hard coded IP addresses are not supported.

5)  Message reordering for NNTP is not supported yet.

6)  The remailer does not work under WinNT or Win95 yet.

7)  The remailer does not operate with the Netcom winsock.

8)  If the remailer does not have enough memory to run the PGP task in a 
    DOS window, the PGP decryption will fail and the message will
    be lost.  Test a few messages before allowing the remailer to run 
    unattended.

9)  Occasionally, the remailer timing out on SMTP or POP3 will cause 
    Free Agent (the newsreader) to disconnect from the news server when 
    using the Internet-In-A-Box WINSOCK.  Netscape and Private Idaho also 
    cause this problem, so I am unsure if this is a problem with the 
    remailer or with the WINSOCK.

10) Getting the addresses in the From: and Request-Remailing-To: header 
    lines is weak (requires only that an "@" be present for the address 
    to be assumed valid.  Addresses without an "@" sign will be rejected.

11) Loading the WINSOCK.DLL and dialing does not work with Internet-In-A-Box
    dialer.  Trumpet may work, but has not been tested recently.  I will 
    retest with Trumpet in a few days.  The remailer has not been tested 
    with any other WinSocks.  If you find any that work or don't work, 
    please let me know.

12) Debugging messages in DEBUG.ASC file in the LOG subdirectory are 
    cryptic.  Generally, timeouts are caused by the server not responding 
    within 60 seconds.

13) Daylight savings time in the Date: header is not yet supported (it will
    always use standard time).

14) On rare occasions, long messages are sometimes munged.  I've been 
    working on this one for weeks, and still don't know why.

Installing the WinSock Remailer:
- -------------------------------

1)  Create a directory where you want the remailer code to reside,
    for example, C:\REMAILER.  You should have at least 10-20 MB of 
    free disk space on the drive where the remailer will operate.

2)  Unzip the file WSA13.ZIP into the directory you just created.
    You will find three files, WSRMA12.ZIP, this file README.TXT and 
    WSRAM13.SIG.  WSRMA13.SIG is the detached signature file for WSRMA13.ZIP.  
    Verify the signature using PGP and my key found on my homepage at 
    http://www.c2.net/~winsock.

3)  You will find the following files in WSRMA13.ZIP:

 Length  Method   Size  Ratio   Date    Time    CRC-32  Attr  Name
 ------  ------   ----- -----   ----    ----   -------- ----  ----
 219648  Implode 107495  52%  11-17-94  04:50  d2386b5d --w-  BC450RTL.DLL
 164928  Implode  50249  70%  02-28-95  11:14  060f476f --w-  BWCC.DLL
    283  Shrunk     220  23%  08-04-96  17:41  eff2eab1 --w-  COMMENT.ASC
     34  Stored      34   0%  08-04-96  17:44  5400f517 --w-  DEST.BLK
   1310  Implode    731  45%  09-16-96  23:49  7049ba29 --w-  HELP.ASC
    232  Shrunk     194  17%  08-04-96  17:43  84f570bc --w-  KEY.ASC
   4846  Implode   2609  47%  08-13-96  21:37  f8aacb35 --w-  LICENSE.TXT
 266538  Implode  98828  63%  09-16-96  23:42  80b5a398 --w-  REMAILER.EXE
     17  Stored      17   0%  08-04-96  17:44  28dedbf6 --w-  SOURCE.BLK
    545  Implode    179  68%  08-27-95  10:59  d85b6f8e --w-  WRPGP.PIF
 ------          ------  ---                                  -------
 658381          260556  61%                                       10

4)  Move the files BWCC.DLL and BC450RTL.DLL into your Windows system
    directory (usually C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM) only if:
    a) you don't already have these two files, OR
    b) the dates on the two files in your system directory have dates
       earlier than those shown above.
    If you already have the same or later dated files, delete these two
    files.

5)  Move the file WRPGP.PIF into your PGP directory (you should have
    installed PGP before installing the remailer), usually C:\PGP.
    Make sure the environment variable PGPPATH points to your PGP 
    directory.

6)  Edit the file COMMENT.ASC to customize the headers of messages sent
    by your remailer.  You will want to include information on where to 
    send complaints and blocking requests, and a pointer to your remailer's
    home page, if any.

7)  Edit HELP.ASC for specific help information on how to use your remailer.
    This file will be sent to users of your remailer if you enable 
    remailer-help on the Options Dialog Box.  You should include information
    on which options you are using with your remailer.

8)  Edit KEY.ASC to insert your remailer's PGP public key.

9)  Edit SOURCE.BLK (source address blocking file) and DEST.BLK (destination
    address blocking file) for any addresses you want to block.  I 
    recommend you block "whitehouse.gov" to make sure no one uses your
    remailer to threaten the President, which is a federal crime.  Each
    address must go on a separate line.

10) Create a "Program Item" that you will use to startup the remailer from 
    the Windows Program Manager.  Do this by selecting the Group that you
    want to put the WinSock Remailer into and then selecting File | New
    from the Program Manager.  Make sure that the Working Directory points
    to the directory where REMAILER.EXE resides.

11) Once you have done all of the above instructions, you can now run the
    remailer for the first time.  Open all of the dialog boxes under the
    Setup Menu and fill out all of the items.  See the WinSock Remailer
    Setup Page at http://www.c2.net/~winsock/setup.html for more details.

12) Once everything is setup properly, you can now run the remailer.
    Use Private Idaho to send the remailer some test messages and verify
    that the operation of the remailer is successful.  You will probably 
    want to turn on logging so that you can debug any problems with your
    remailer setup.

If you have any problems or questions, send me a note at [email protected]
and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  You can find additional 
information on my webpage at http://www.c2.net/~winsock/.  See also the
release notes at http://www.c2.net/~winsock/relnote.html.

Since this is alpha software, you may encounter some problems.  Specifically,
I need to know if you have success with any of the following untested 
configurations:

a) Windows 95 (now known not to work)
b) Windows NT (now known not to work)
c) Any WinSock other than Internet-In-A-Box or Trumpet WinSock.
d) Any version of PGP other than 2.6.2.

If you do find a problem, give me detailed information on your computer's
configuration, such as version of Windows, Winsock, amount of memory, 
which version of PGP, etc.

Good luck,

Joey Grasty
[email protected]



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--
Joey Grasty
[email protected] [home -- encryption, privacy, RKBA and other hopeless causes]
[email protected] [work -- designing pagers]
"Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is,
of course, in a state of sin." -- John Von Neumann
PGP = A7 CC 31 E4 7E A3 36 13  93 F4 C9 06 89 51 F5 A7