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Downloading the whole message base to scan for one's messages will place a massive load on net.resources, and probably a prohibitive load on most people's terminals.

I disagree. The only resource that will be hit is the message haven (unlike say every computer in the world that carries the certain usenet group you have chosen to use as a communications vehicle). Geez, think of like a place that offers anonymous ftp. It's resources are hit, but I don't buy the "massive load on net.resources". The only load I can envision being hit on a person's terminal is the time it would take to browse all messages. You have to read each message and have your communications software log in a file, or scrollback/record each one individually. I mean, the info is already coming to your computer, you just have to save it. Maybe the haven could offer a way to get all the days/weeks/whatever files in one big chuck; this is clearly no worse than just ftp'ing a large file.

This scheme should avoid this nescessity:

This scheme is precisely what I described earlier! The two users agree on what to name/tag the file, and that's how they get messages to each other. The problem is Bob can't just retreive that one file (if he is concerned about traffic analysis), so he can get them all so a watcher learns nothing. You have suggested downloading a smaller portion of the available message base instead of the whole thing.

The gopherhole must be trusted not to divulge which posts came from who, and it's key must not be compromized.

Alice and Bob can get their messages to the haven via anonymous remailers to avoid problem #1. I didn't envision the message haven even having a key. It isn't needed if they both are encrypting with the other person's key anyway, so I'm not sure what problem #2 is. Karl Barrus klbarrus@owlnet.rice.edu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLdL5hYOA7OpLWtYzAQHx8QQAtlVYJvSGyR0uGq8a8IodCewZNBwSVHou 7YJssBHIBp/I+V+s1fMpBkUSmG6oINu5L/VEeEQXRswHGJJ/F6jLtxkrFlY/kcff XKTqizrroVtemYQpZtjpPowT2eQsdlonewbslZc3Y+GdZfErgCzoiYW2dXIX8tnG yD2OvZKCAYs= =i3Ea -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----