Quoth Arsen Ray Arachelian <raachel@prism.poly.edu>:
In that case one of us (who owns a machine directly plugged into the net) should set up an anon server that doesn't check for user/host names, or better yet, provide a bouncing off point for anonymous telnet... Say something like you telnet to port 666 on toad.com, and then you're given an anonymous temporary id. At that point, you are prompted with a menu for what to do... telnet to another site, ftp into another side, call an IRC server from somewhere, etc. All the anon server would have to do is bounce packets... I think this idea came up before... an anon packet forwarding service of sorts...
If a user goes through several of these, s/he is granted pretty decent anonimity... Perhaps another play on this would work with encrypted packets? Where each user who dials into one of these packet bouncers talks to it via a PGP like RSA and key-exchange system.
All the IRC server will see is that someone named anon7 logged in from eminar.toad.com...
in actuality, the code for this exists, has existed for some time, and has even seen some use. it is a simple telnet reflector that functions more or less in the manner you are envisioning; the irc user simply directs the client to the address and port of the 'anon server,' which grants the user its own hostname and an incremented username starting with 'an001;' these and subsequent packets are forwarded to an actual server nearby. the code was written by all-time incorrigible irc hooligan Hendrix, who also brought us the annoybots, tsunami floodbots, and countless other innovations without which irc just wouldn't be the same. the anonirc.c code is available via anon ftp at ftp.rahul.net /pub/jimi, which also houses countless other quasi-legitimate utilities and patches. the project of anonimity on irc seems to be a valuable one, notwithstanding the legion of users whose baser traits are augmented by the prospect of utter irresponsibility. the crytographic frontier on the irc is, for me at least, perhaps much more desirable territory; and of course the two used in sensible conjunction would be ideal. while there is a rudimentary form of encryption built into the unix irc client software, i confess i have only seen it used thoughtfully on one occasion, and sadly, it was to conceal the intentions of parties involved in an 'op war.' on the lighter side, i have recently seen a number of users invoking weak (or perhaps mock) encryption of the form 'CLIPPER:<apparently random digits>:<garbled message>.' so perhaps the interest is fomenting, parody can often turn trash into gold, when well executed. ---------- monad@tigger.jvnc.net apologia pro mea vita "The infant's first step is its first step towards death." Kozma Prutkov