MesNews with OmniMix

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OmniMix and MesNews Preparation and Installation Section
I. Send messages to News Groups Anonymously through MesNews/OmniMix
(The MesNews program can also be used to download and read news when
combined with OmniMix.)
II. Send Anonymous Email Messages through the remailer system through
MesNews/OmniMix
MesNews is the news and email agent that connects to OmniMix, and
OmniMix is the encrypting / sending agent.
Purpose of this document: This document will attempt to explain through step
by step instructions how to set up the following programs that will:
1. (read - not anonymous) and post anonymous messages to news groups;
2. send anonymous emails through the remailer system;
with the MesNews mail/news client through the OmniMix switchbox program.
Preparations:
Go to the links below and download the following programs:
www.mesnews.net
(Click on the flag identifying your language, click on the '.download' link on the
left side of the page, and click the 'click here' button to download the
MesNews program. The download file should look something like:
'setup-mesnews-1.8.2.0.exe'.)
www.danner-net.de/om.htm
(Scroll down the main web page to the 'Downloads' section. Click on the link
to the right of 'Latest versions of OmniMix'. It should look something like:
'OmniMix 1.5.5 (sig)(installer with all necessary binaries)'. [The signature
(sig) that can be used to verify the file's authenticity can also be downloaded,
however, verifying it is beyond the scope of these setup instructions.] Do not
download any other files from the OmniMix site. All the necessary files are
contained in the 'Latest versions of OmniMix' downloaded file. The
download file should look something like: 'OmniMix_1.5.5_Uno_Setup.exe'.)
Installations:
Step 1: Install MesNews by double clicking on the '.exe'. I like to keep all my
encryption programs in a special folder called 'C:\Encryption\', however,
it shouldn't make any difference where you install MesNews. Keep the
programs in separate folders, however. You could use
'C:\Encryption\MesNews\' for the MesNews files.
Note: MesNews likes to put the downloaded news into a folder that is
outside of the folder where MesNews is installed. I personally like
to keep it in a folder within the MesNews folder as below. This
suggestion will also help you more easily find these messages to
clean them out. Cleaning out old messages will be covered later.
Step 2: Install OmniMix by double clicking on the '.exe'. Check everything as
pictured below. You could use 'C:\Encryption\OmniMix\' for the OmniMix
files. Note: Be sure to install and use the Tor and Mixmaster that come
in the OmniMix setup. There are certain parameters and one program
modification in the included Tor and Mixmaster that OmniMix must use
to function properly.
Note: (It may also be necessary to install OmniMix outside the 'Program
Files' folder on Vista for the program to work properly.)
-- End of program installation section. --
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The following instructions will show you how to set up:
MesNews and OmniMix Setup Section
OmniMix Setup:
Step 1. Logon to the internet. Start the OmniMix (OmniMix.exe) program. As
you can see, there are many tabs on the program's interface. You will
need to click on the required tab to get to the various fields that need
modifying. Set the parameters as they appear in the examples below
or according to instructions.
Start by clicking on the Services tab and set the parameters as you see
them here. I don't think that the User Agent drop down box choice is
critical, so do your best with setting it.
Step 2. Next click on the State Int tab and then the Mixmaster (T2) tab. A
change to the parameters in the Starex box is suggested. Click on the
+ button and add 'nightmix'. If there is a problem with the results, click
the # button to reset to the original parameters and start Step 2 over.
No changes are necessary for the other sub tabs.
Step 3. Next click on the State Ext tab and then the Mixmaster (T2) tab and
change it to the parameters displayed below. No changes are necessary
for the other sub tabs. After setting the http addresses, click the
Update State Data button if it is enabled to force a statistics update. You
will probably see some data being written in the window to the right of
the tabs. Disregard the 'Finger error' messages on the log page.
http://pinger.bananasplit.info/type2.list
http://pinger.bananasplit.info/pubring.mix
http://pinger.bananasplit.info/mlist.html
Additional: http://stats.melontraffickers.com/type2.list
http://stats.melontraffickers.com/mlist.txt
http://stats.melontraffickers.com/pubring.mix
Note: The url addresses are addresses of what are called Pingers. These
are sites that run these free services that are necessary to determine
if individual remailers are up and running properly. The two groups of
Pingers above have proven to be very reliable over a long time period
and are recommended. This could change in the future, however, and
this document will be updated if and when necessary. For now, use the
bananasplit pinger as shown. If you have trouble with getting statistics
downloaded, ask for advise in this news groups:
alt.privacy.anon-server
Step 4. Next click on the User tab. Click on the OmniMix line to highlight it and
then click the = button. Fill out the information as shown and click
'Accept'. (If there should not be an OmniMix line already present when
you click the User tab, then create the line by clicking the + button.)
Note: The 'Passwrd' is displayed in an encrypted form in the User tab.
Step 5. Next click on the Anon tab. Set the Number of Copies to 3, 4, or 5.
Click on the M2N Gateway drop down box to highlight the line and delete
the data therein. Then type or paste in the following:
mail2news@bananasplit.info,mail2news@dizum.com,mail2news@reece.net.au
Step 6. Next click on the Mail S tab. Type in your Internet Service Provider's
smtp address¹ in the 'Host' box. If you do not know what the address is,
you can usually find it through your ISP's support web page concerning
email account/client setup. You might need to simply call them and ask
what the smtp address is. You may also need to put in your 'User' (ID)
and 'Passwd' (password). Even if you are connect directly to a cable
modem, you will need to determine what these are from your ISP if you
don't know them.
Note: your 'User' (ID) may be your short user ID (my-userid) or you might
have to use your long user ID (my-userid@my-isp.com).
(¹ You might try smtp.my.internet.provider as your 'Host:' parameter.
example: smtp.microsoft.com)
Further suggestions: Things can be different with different ISPs. If
you still can not send messages after filling out the information in the
above window, then try unchecking the 'Auth.' check box.
Note: You do not have to fill out the 'News' and 'Mail S' tabs. This way
you can be assured that you are always using the anonymous mail
smtp host ('Anon Mail S').
Step 7. Next clicking on the Server tab and set the parameters as displayed
below. Be sure 'Ext.S.' is checked.
Note: When OmniMix is started, it starts in Start mode and displays the
N S P circles in green. You can stop OmniMix by clicking the Stop
button if desired (which will cause the N S P circles to become red),
but stopping it should not be necessary. Note that when you change
certain fields in some tabs, that OmniMix will cause the N S P
background to become red . If this happens, click the Start button to
restart the servers in order to activate the new parameter.
Note: When a change to a parameter turns the N S P background
red, it does not stop the server. The N S P background turns
red just to indicate that the server needs to be restarted for the
changes to be activated.
-- End of OmniMix setup section. --
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MesNews News Agent Setup:
Step 1. Start MesNews and click the upper left corner menu item: 'File' and then
'Settings'. Click on the necessary tab and set the fields therein as shown
below:
Note: These fields could also be set to:
Name: anon
Organization: anon
E-Mail: anon@domain.invalid
Reply-to: anon@domain.invalid
After setting these fields, click 'Apply'.
Step 2. Next click on the menu item: 'Server' and 'New Server'. Set the
fields therein to:
omnimix;ht=news.mixmin.net;pt=119;tl=e;to=no
After setting these fields, click 'Apply'.
Step 3. Now you need to download all the news groups. Do this by right clicking
on the 'Mixmin via OmniMix' line and then click 'Show newsgrouplist'.
Step 4. Clicking on 'Show newsgrouplist' will bring up the window below. After
the list is built, go down and click on the group you desire to monitor.
After clicking on a group, then click the 'Subscribe' button to subscribe
to that group. After making all of your selections, click the 'Close'
button at the bottom of the interface.
Step 5a. There is one final step that has to be done to each of the newsgroups
you have chosen. Right click on each of the news group names and
then click the 'Group Properties (unique.group.name)' menu item. This
will bring up the window in Step 5b.
Step 5b. Type (or copy from below and paste) the information you see into the
'list box' window found in the 'Headers' tab, check the 'Download
headers + bodies' check box found in the 'Synchronization' tab, and then
click 'Apply'. Again, this needs to be done for each news group that you
choose in Step 4, so now go back to Step 5a and do the same for any
additional news groups that you have selected.
O-Anon-Send: Yes
O-Anon-From: Non
O-Newsgate-Active: Yes
O-Newsgate-Address: mail2news@bananasplit.info,mail2news@dizum.com,mail2news@reece.net.au
O-Remailer-Chain: 0 0 0 0
O-Remailer-Copies: 4
Note: A word of caution here. It is important that you check 'Download
headers + body's'. It is also important that you allow MesNews to
download the headers and message bodies. If you were to prematurely
click on a news item before MesNews had downloaded it, you could
reveal that you were interested in that particular news message
because you would cause it to download out of sequence. (Be informed
that some messages may automatically download out of sequence, but
this is not a problem.)
With the 'Download headers + body's' setting checked, your computer
could accumulate quite a large number of old news messages. It would
be a good idea to delete these old messages from time to time. You can
do this by searching for folders that are within your MesNews folder
(see: 'Installations:', 'Step 1:', 'Note:') that contain the same name as
your chosen news groups. Once these folders are located, you can then
delete some or all of the files within. The file names will look something
like this: '20081108-1.news'. Use the file dates to determine which ones
to delete.
After setting these fields, click 'Apply'.
Step 6. This modification is not required, but will reduce the header information
so that you only see two header fields above news messages. Find the
'Options of display...' button on the MesNews interface and click it, then
click the 'Header' and 'Custom headers to display' menu items which will
bring up the window below. Check the 'Sujet (Subject:)' and
'Message ID (Message-ID:)' check boxes only, and then click 'Apply'.
Go back through and click the 'Options of display...' button and 'Header'
menu and check the 'Custom headers' menu item. If you ever need to
view all headers, you can simply click on the 'All headers' menu item.
After making these changes, click 'Apply'.
You should now be ready to use MesNews with OmniMix to view and
answer news articles. Be sure that OmniMix is running when you start
MesNews.
Note: There is an altered english language file shipped in the zip file with
this Help. It makes a few changes so as to keep various lines from
over running some of the control descriptions in the MesNews
interface. Backup the mesnews2.gb.lang file found in the 'Language'
folder that is within the folder where MesNews was installed. Then
replace the mesnews2.gb.lang with the same file shipped with this
Help.
MesNews Email Setup:
Step 1. Click on the 'File' menu in the top left corner of the MesNews interface.
Then click the 'Settings' menu item, then on the the Email tab, and set
the parameters as shown below.
Note: These instructions pertaining to setting up the MesNews email
client should apply to any other email client you might want to
use.
After making these changes, click 'Apply'.
Now click on one of the news groups under your Mixmin via OmniMix
Servers on the MesNews interface. This has to be done in order to get the
news/mail creation window button to become enabled (upper left corner).
The window will always come up to send to news groups. On the left side
of the interface, you will see three vertical tabs: For+Mai, Mail, and Forum.
Click the Mail tab and enter the receipent's email address, the subject, and
the message to be sent through OmniMix to the remailers. Then click the
'Send (e-mail)' button.
Now experiment by sending yourself some emails through OmniMix.
Remailer emails may take a few hours to reach their destination.
Technical note: If you are attempting to send email through your own ISP
with OmniMix and are not receiving any test mails to yourself, then your ISP
could be blocking port 25. Below is an explaination from one ISP
concerning this.
Summary:
The following information describes why 'ThisISP' High Speed Internet
blocks port 25.
Content:
No one likes unsolicited e-mail (spam), except the spammers. 'ThisISP'
continues to look for opportunities to reduce the amount of spam going to
its customers and leaving its network. Spam typically comes in two primary
forms either from computer virus programs that act as mail sending
programs, or from computers turned into mail servers specifically to send
spam. To reduce unsolicited bulk e-mail sent on our 'ThisISP' High Speed
Internet network, we have instituted outbound SMTP traffic blocking.
Currently, we also block all inbound SMTP traffic in an effort to protect
unsecured computers from being used as a mail relay by potential
spammers. This security measure is designed to protect Internet users
and the 'ThisISP' High Speed Internet network and the vast majority of
customers will not be affected by this practice in any way. The small
numbers of customers who use e-mail addresses outside of the
myisp@myisp.net domain and do not currently have their SMTP servers
set for 'ThisDifferentISP' mail servers will need to change their settings.
We have provided answers to some of the most anticipated questions
below.
Q: What changes are actually being made?
A: 'ThisISP' will block all network traffic from residential customer IP
addresses going outbound on port 25 (SMTP) at our routers, unless it is
being sent to a 'ThisDifferentISP' HSI SMTP server.
Q. What are the correct SMTP server settings to use on the 'ThisISP' High
Speed Internet service?
A. Please contact one of our Customer Service Representatives at
1-800-000-0000 to receive the server information for your area.
(Customers using third party email services must configure their email
clients to use smtp.*.myisp.net to send outbound email.)
. . .
-- End of MesNews setup section. --
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