****** Hal <74076.1041@CompuServe.COM> ******
I think the lesson is that this process of automatic alias assignment may not be the best way to handle things... look at all the problems Karl ran into.
If I understand Karl right, he got this cascade of aliases because he tried to talk to HIMSELF through different accounts/aliases at alternate ends of the chain. Since no one would want to do that (other than to test things) normally, this wouldn't be a problem.
I still lean towards the idea of a "constructed" anonymous address, where I decide ahead of time which remailers I'll use, and in what order.
But I already *do* control the order of use for MY mail, that means stuff I send out and stuff people send to me in DIRECT reply to my stuff. There is nothing to stop someone from sending to my id on pax say through a first remailer of their own choice, provided they originate the mail (i.e. a REPLY is not equivalent to ORIGINAL mail in this case). As for picking my own alias, this sounds appealing but is actually much weaker then a randomly assigned one. Besides that, it could be an administrative nightmare for the sysadmins on the aliasing systems. matthew rapaport Philosopher/Programmer At Large KD6KVH mjr@netcom.com 70371.255@compuserve.com