Anonymous Servers - omnimix feedback 2

Author

omnimix feedback 2

macarro

2006-11-21, 7:13 am

Ok, at first glance I think the software its great but without a clear
manual to know what to do I can hardly see anyone using it, I consider
myself quite geeky and even so I am still lost.

Because I don't have to work I have been able to spend a whole day
reading the stuff here are some problems I found:

Section Installation:

1)PGP 6.x DLLs need direct link if possible

2)Installation tree representation:

+---mix
¦ ¦ mixmaste.exe (2.0)
¦ ¦ mixmaste.con (2.0)
¦ ¦ mix.exe (2.9)
¦ ¦ mixlib.dll (2.9)
¦ ¦ libeay32.dll (2.9)
¦ ¦ mix.cfg (2.9)

REAL OUTCOME

with mix29b39) taken from (for OmniMix 0.9.8 and higher):

mix.com
mpgp.com

This two files are not in the tree representation and some that appear in
the tree are not part of the files inside mixmaster29b39 (downloaded
directly from hyperlink in omnimix website)

------------------------------------

Section "The first anonymous mail":

1) Instructions say "At 'Anon From - Mail' specify your alias" but in
what form? default is:
anon <anon@email.invalid> , do we need to use <> too?

2) Where it says "Then deactivate the 'Separate chain for anonymous
mails'", to find this setting it is very hard however in the end I did
manage to find it, for a user to find it he/she must place the cursor on
top of one of the square boxes (called switch in the manual) and then
read the bubble where indeed it says 'Use a separate chain for anonymous
mails'.

3) Where it says: "retrieving nym messages from a newsgroup doesn't
result in an increment of the message pointer." And what is a message
pointer??

---------------------------------------
"Anon" tab default number of copies is 6, default setting shouldnt it be
changed to 1?
----------------------------------------
When connected
On tab "M2N Stats" I get message:

"I'm sorry to tell you, the gateway log is no longer available..."
------------------------------------------
Minor annoyances:

When reading the useful information of the yellow bubbles this
information dissapears after a few seconds and you have to move the mouse
again over the square to read it. An example of this can be found in the
Anon tab then place cursor over Mail square box.

On the same square there is a minor typpo, instead of "negligeant" it
should say "negligent"

On "HTTP/Finger" tab when resetting the Internet Server List (#)dialogue
asks in German Ja or Nein same in "EditTor" tab when click on Set Config

There is no exit button
----------------------------------

Christian Danner

2006-11-22, 7:12 pm

Hi once again!

Macarro wrote:

>Ok, at first glance I think the software its great but without a clear
>manual to know what to do I can hardly see anyone using it, I consider
>myself quite geeky and even so I am still lost.

About 25 pages already written and it's getting more and more ... ;-)

>Because I don't have to work I have been able to spend a whole day
>reading the stuff here are some problems I found:
>
>
>Section Installation:
>
>1)PGP 6.x DLLs need direct link if possible

There are several links already posted to this newsgroup. AFAIK only
the SDKs come with DLLs which you're able to extract without having to
install PGP itself.

>2)Installation tree representation:
>
> +---mix
> ¦ ¦ mixmaste.exe (2.0)
> ¦ ¦ mixmaste.con (2.0)
> ¦ ¦ mix.exe (2.9)
> ¦ ¦ mixlib.dll (2.9)
> ¦ ¦ libeay32.dll (2.9)
> ¦ ¦ mix.cfg (2.9)
>
>
>REAL OUTCOME

with mix29b39) taken from (for OmniMix 0.9.8 and higher):
>
>mix.com
>mpgp.com
>
>This two files are not in the tree representation and some that appear in
>the tree are not part of the files inside mixmaster29b39 (downloaded
>directly from hyperlink in omnimix website)

The files included in the
ftp://ftp.quicksilvermail.net/pub/q...er/Mix29b39.zip archive
(430,735 byte) I downloaded from Richard's website are

COPYRIGHT 4.527 17.01.1999 23:40 ----c
README 558 08.10.2002 10:30 -a--c
mix.cfg 895 17.05.1999 21:48 ----c
libeay32.dll 761.039 21.09.1999 20:00 -a--c
mixlib.dll 221.184 26.09.2002 14:02 -a--c
COPYRIGHT.eay 6.330 22.09.1999 17:14 ----c
mix.exe 24.576 26.09.2002 14:02 -a--c
mpgp.exe 16.384 08.10.2002 10:31 -a--c
idea.txt 1.868 17.01.1999 23:40 ----c
manual.txt 24.502 22.09.1999 04:03 ----c
1.036 k in 10 Files

What's missing?

>------------------------------------
>
>Section "The first anonymous mail":
>
>1) Instructions say "At 'Anon From - Mail' specify your alias" but in
>what form? default is:
>anon <anon@email.invalid> , do we need to use <> too?

As this value replaces the 'From' parameter of your message at least
every syntactically valid mail address with or without a real name
part is allowed:
john.doe@domain.invalid
John Doe <john.doe@domain.invalid>

>2) Where it says "Then deactivate the 'Separate chain for anonymous
>mails'", to find this setting it is very hard however in the end I did
>manage to find it, for a user to find it he/she must place the cursor on
>top of one of the square boxes (called switch in the manual) and then
>read the bubble where indeed it says 'Use a separate chain for anonymous
>mails'.

Thanks, I corrected the phrasing.

>3) Where it says: "retrieving nym messages from a newsgroup doesn't
>result in an increment of the message pointer." And what is a message
>pointer??

Other than mails that stem from a POP3 server, which are deleted after
retrieval, nym messages that are routed through a newsgroup are
available for a longer period of time. So OmniMix has to take notes of
the messages it already processed to prevent multiple deliveries. The
fact that each nym server chronologically assigns a strictly ascending
order of numbers to all messages within a newsgroup allows OmniMix to
keep track of the already processed messages by simply storing the
number of the next message that has to be interpreted. The only
problem is that those numbers are news server specific. That's why
adjustments of that 'Message Pointer' have to take place after an
exchange of the news server.

I already added that explanation to the manual. It comes with the next
release.

>---------------------------------------
>"Anon" tab default number of copies is 6, default setting shouldnt it be
>changed to 1?

No. You always have to see the number of copies in conjunction with
the remailer chain. If there are several random remailers (the '0' or
'*' remailers in the chain) each copy is routed differently, which is
why a higher number of copies increases reliability.

>----------------------------------------
>When connected
>On tab "M2N Stats" I get message:
>
>"I'm sorry to tell you, the gateway log is no longer available..."

The M2N Stats data are only for your own information and not
interpreted by OmniMix. If you need them replace the URL at the 'State
Ext/M2N' tab by 'http://www.cotse.net/users/drsnoid/results.txt'.

As service disruptions aren't always forseeable it may be necessary to
get such information from other sources like apas.

>------------------------------------------
>Minor annoyances:
>
>When reading the useful information of the yellow bubbles this
>information dissapears after a few seconds and you have to move the mouse
>again over the square to read it. An example of this can be found in the
>Anon tab then place cursor over Mail square box.

That's normal windows behaviour. Would it help to allow the user to
define that time interval which currently is set to 10 seconds?

>On the same square there is a minor typpo, instead of "negligeant" it
>should say "negligent"

Thanks for reading it in such an attentive manner. I thought both
versions are allowed.

>On "HTTP/Finger" tab when resetting the Internet Server List (#)dialogue
>asks in German Ja or Nein same in "EditTor" tab when click on Set Config

I fear there's no remedy against that as those dialogs are pinned down
by the German compiler version I have.

>There is no exit button

What for?

>----------------------------------

I appreciate the work you've done.

With kind regards

Christian
--
OmniMix .. protect your privacy
http://www.danner-net.de/om.htm