A Beginner's Guide to Anonymous Posting

How to Contribute Intelligently to the Conversations in a.d.p.c.
Without Bringing the COPS to Your Door

This guide has three sections:
Getting the Software
Creating a NYM.ALIAS.NET Account
Posting through the nym. with mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu

Getting the Software

For nym.alias.net home page:
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/n.a.n.html

For PGP encryption software:
http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp-form.html

For Private Idaho software (makes nym.alias.net setup and remailers easy):
http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm

Remailer information:
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~raph/remailer-list.html

Also you can add "x-no-archive: yes" without the quotes as the first line of your posted message. The post will not be archived by DejaNews, etc.

HINTS:
Get PGP but don't install it or unzip it.

Get Private Idaho version 2.8b3, don't get a previous release.

Read any readme and other files you can find with Private before installing it. Part of the installation of Private Idaho can include letting Private Idaho install PGP for you.

My advice is not to start off setting up a nym or using encryption, it'll just get you in deep water.

First- get PI to work with straight email, without any encryption, just straight email. Send yourself a couple messages and receive them with your regular email program to confirm it's working OK. Then make sure PI can interface with your browser. Then click on the Remailers|Update Remailer Info menu options while online to make sure the remailer data is fresh (you will do that frequently). You'll see the date under the remailer box change.

Second- Use PI to write a small message, encrypt it, and send it to yourself. Then use the PI Message|Scan for PGP Messages menu options to scan your mailserver for the PGP message. Then do the same through one of the remailers. When you have received the message in PI and decrypted it then you can start in on the wonderful world of nyms:-)

Creating a nym.alias.net Account

For a remailer will use remailer@cypherpunks.ca.

The instructions assume that all the remailer and nym public keys are on your public keyring. From PI KEYS menu click INSERT KEY IN MESSAGE if the window lists many keys (about 30) the keys needed are most likely there, click CANCEL.

Under the PGP menu make sure AUTO-CLOSE PGP and WORD WRAP ON ENCRYPT/SIGN are the only ones checked.

Under NEWSGROUPS, NONE is checked.

Nym Name: peanuts
Expanded Nym name: Nutty Guy
Email address would be: peanuts@nym.alias.net
Email address w/Expanded nym name is: Nutty Guy <PEANUTS@NYM.ALIAS.NET>

From PI KEYS menu select CREATE KEY PAIR (DOS window appears)
1-Select the 1024 key option
2-Enter User ID for public key. eg: Nutty Guy <PEANUTS@NYM.ALIAS.NET>
3-Enter Passphrase (write it down too)
4-Follow instructions to randomly hit keyboard keys
5-After prompted to stop, WAIT for beep and dots on screen to stop.
(Leave DOS window)

1-In PI REMAILERS menu make sure CYPHERPUNK is checked.
2-In PI REMAILERS,ADVANCED CYPHERPUNK menu make sure only the ENCRYPT TO REMAILERS and USE LATENT TIME options are checked.
3-Enter your real email address in the PI To: box.
4-In the Remailer Name box highlight remailer@cypherpunks.ca or another reliable remailer to use in your nyms' reply block.

In PI NYM menu click on CREATE NYM...

1-Select nym server <CONFIG@NYM.ALIAS.NET>/<SEND@NYM.ALIAS.NET>
2-Enter your Nym Name, then enter the Expanded Nym Name
Click next Go To Step 3 (PGP key for nym already exists)
3-Click next (real email address is already in the TO: box)
4-Click next (remailer is already highlighted)
5-Enter Passphrase
6-Click next (Nym key is already on keyring)

The Advance Remailer Options box appears. 1-Make sure Latent Time is set at +0:00, if it isn't change it.

PI shells to DOS.....DOS opens & closes

Select User ID from the list of public keys. This is the key you just created "Nutty Guy <PEANUTS@NYM.ALIAS.NET>"

In Windows 95 at this point the program may appear to stall. If so look at the taskbar for a box with an MS-DOS icon and Private Idaho written in it (you may also see a "Step 6" box in the taskbar). The MS-DOS box should be the active box, click on it to finish the DOS operation. DO NOT click on the "Next" box of the step 6 window for a second time. If your taskbar is hidden you can use ALT+TAB to find the MS-DOS icon. After clicking on the MS-DOS box DOS will finish then ask you for a passphrase.

Enter a passphrase in the DOS window, and press Enter to finish the nym request.

From the PI MESSAGE menu select APPEND INFO. The message is further encrypted for the remailer and remailer@cypherpunks.ca is now in the To: box.

Click the SEND button if connected to the mailserver. Or mail the message to remailer@cypherpunks.ca later.

In about an hour an encrypted email will arrive saying the nym has been configured. If you have mail waiting on your mailserver at this time don't retrieve it with the regular email program. Instead load PI while online and select MESSAGE, SCAN FOR PGP MESSAGES. It will only remove PGP messages from the server. Then highlight the message and click Decrypt in the PGP Messages window. If you find another encrypted message within the first select PGP, DECRYPT MESSAGE.

This email will contain a special email address (usually a long number). It must be sent to activate the nym. To do so: 1-Save the message with FILE, SAVE MESSAGE..,
2-Copy and paste the special email address into the To: box.
3-Select EDIT, CLEAR MESSAGE to clear the Message box.
4-Highlight remailer@cypherpunks.ca in the remailer box.
5-Select MESSAGE, APPEND INFO
6-Click on the SEND button.

In a short time another encrypted email will arrive confirming that you nym is activated and can be used.

NOW-Click PGP, OPTIONS, and check the box that says "Prompt for user ID on signing". Then click on the USER IDs button and enter the nym ID. For example: <PEANUTS@NYM.ALIAS.NET>

POSTING THROUGH THE NYM WITH
mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu

Have noticed a lot of folks having trouble, or going through many contortions in order to post to usenet through a mail2news gateway using Private Idaho and nym.alias.net. I've had no problems doing this and will share my way of posting in this message.

I'll assume you use the final release of PI 2.8b3 dated 1/7/97, since it fixes some of the nym bugs in the previous release. If you use 2.8b2 you can upgrade to 2.8b3 by downloading "only" the new Pidaho.exe file from their web site (just replace your existing exe file with it to upgrade). I'll also assume your existing nym setup is working properly.

Here's what I do.

1-From the PGP menu click on OPTIONS then click the USER ID'S button. Enter your nym address as one of the Multiple ID's then put a check mark in the "Prompt for user ID on signing" box. When entering your nym address only use the part within the angled brackets (include the brackets), for example <YOURNYM@NYM.ALIAS.NET> is how the entry will look.

2-Either create a text file with the headers below, or use the EDIT, OPTIONS menus to enter the headers to be used with the EDIT, Insert header or Insert signature options.

--cut--

From: YOURNYM
Nym-Commands: -acksend
To: mail2news@anon.lcs.mit.edu
Newsgroups: alt.drugs.pot.cultivation
Subject: 
x-no-archive: yes
References: FOR REPLYING TO A POST PUT ITS "MESSAGE-ID" NUMBER HERE.

Of course replace any words in upper case with those applicable to you or your post. You can remove the "Nym-Commands", "x-no-archive", and "References" lines if you wish not to use them. If you want to reply to a post use the "References" line and put that post's Message-ID number there, if not replying remove the line.

That's the end of the setting up, below is how to use it for posting.

3-Put the header at the top of the PI Message box, leave a blank line under it, then type your post.

4-Make sure send@nym.alias.net is in the TO: box, then click on the PGP menu option and select ENCRYPT AND SIGN MESSAGE. You will be presented with a list of User ID's to use for signing. Select the one that matches the nymname you're using for the post (if you have more than one).

Whamo Bhamo it is done. Now just send as usual through your remailer(s).

You might want to put a check mark next to "Word wrap on encrypt/sign" in the PGP menu so word wrapping is done automatically. With latency at +0:00 I see posts on my news server in 1 to 3 minutes on the average, your milage may vary.