On 02/24/16, mark lewis pondered and said...   
       
    ml> have at it :)   
      
   Cheers ears.   
      
    ml>  PH> So I have installed a gpg4win bundle on my pc and have created a   
    ml>  PH> public key which I can post here and you (or others) can then use to   
    ml>  PH> encrypt a message to send to me - right?   
    ml>    
    ml> yes... your signature should also end up on one of the public keyring   
    ml> servers so that anyone can retrieve it... the trick is interfacing with   
    ml> FTN software if you want to use it in this environment... the body of   
    ml> the message, without control lines, has to be saved to a temp file, pgp   
    ml> or gpg run on it to wrap and sign it and then the temp file gets   
    ml> imported to replace the original... on my TimED/2 system, i have the   
    ml> following options and commands...   
      
   [snip - examples]   
      
   Thanks :) Very detailed and looks good for those tools. I'm trying to figure   
   out a way to do something similar with Mystic but at this stage I am unsure   
   how I could write something on the fly and have it posted encoded or read   
   something encoded as decoded on the fly. It seems I could use the mutil tool   
   to post a manually created encoded text file with ease to a jam base and I   
   guess I can manually export a message from a jam base to a text file then   
   manually decode it.. it's just all rather labour intensive. :(   
      
    ml>  PH> But if I were to post and encrypted message here it would be of no us   
    ml>  PH> to anyone unless I had encrypted it using someone elses public key (s   
    ml>  PH> they could unlock it) - right?   
    ml>    
    ml> it works two ways...   
    ml>    
    ml> 1. if you post a message encrypted with your PRIVATE key, anyone with   
    ml> your PUBLIC key can decrypt it... that proves it was you that encrypted   
    ml> it... 2. if you post a message encrypted with my PUBLIC key, only i will   
    ml> be able to decrypt it...   
      
   Gotcha..   
      
    ml> then there's signing a message instead of encrypting it... signing wraps   
    ml> the message and places a digital signature at the bottom... others use   
    ml> your public key to verify that you really did sign the message *and*   
    ml> that it hasn't been altered in transit... signing is very common and   
    ml> generally seen in message posting areas... encrypted stuff may be used   
    ml> more in private transactions, though... i'm not sure there is a metric   
    ml> for counting those...   
      
   OK, I will need to look at the tool I have downloaded to see how I could do   
   that, although I am more interested in doing encrypted stuff using an   
   othernet to test things out as I realise Fidonet policy is not really an   
   enabler of wholesale encrypted traffic :)   
      
    ml> we have to make sure that in FTNs, and other places like news groups and   
    ml> mailing lists, that we are having the tool to emit ascii and not   
    ml> binary... it is possible to encrypt a message and the result is binary   
    ml> which is sent but trying to get binary into a message and get it back   
    ml> out without altering it is tricky at best... much easier to use ascii   
    ml> which is already formatted and wrapped to 70 characters and ready to   
    ml> post anywhere...   
      
   Yep that's fine the tool I have been playing with does this with ease. I also   
   came to the same conclusions quite quickly as well.   
      
    ml> PGP Fingerprint 0xB60C20C5   
      
   When I get something sorted over the weekend I will post the same here.   
      
   Did you get the netmail I sent you?   
      
   Best,Paul   
      
   --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A5 (Windows)   
    * Origin: Agency BBS | telnet://agency.bbs.geek.nz (3:770/100)