-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Here's a bug report on some remailers that won't work in a nested chain when it is encrypted. First, a look at how a chain is supposed to work. Three good ones, chained like: 1) Tower->Alumni->Homer. OK 2) Homer->Tower->Alumni. OK 3) Homer->Alumni->Tower. OK This was in a test of the new Tower remailer. In other words, it doesn't matter if Tower is at the beginning, middle or end of a chain. The message will reach its intended destination. (In fact, quite fast). But some other remailers fuck up when they become part of a nested, encrypted chain. One of those? The Syrinx remailer. Here are the test results: 1) Syrinx->alumni->Homer. NO 2) Homer->syrinx->alumni. NO 3) Homer->alumni->syrinx. OK The third one came back to be in under an hour. No reply from number 1 and 2. I don't know why it doesn't work but it doesn't! Maybe one explanation is that as Syrinx gets a messages it sees the :: Encrypted: PGP and then decodes it using its key (as it should), but then in the decrypted message it sees another :: Encrypted: PGP and attempts to decode it again using its key (again), fails (of course) and aborts. This to me is the only explanation as to this strange behaviour. It is a serious problem and I do think that it should be brought to the attention of everybody. Now I haven't tested all of the remailers so I don't really know which one also will fail the test. In that test I choose Homer and Alumni because I know that these 2 are reliable and don't care in what order they are in a chain, I also always send the same test message it reads: This is a test line1 line2 line3 line4 Sent <TIME and DATE> to #1->#2->#3 So its easy to do. And when I get a reply I know which one (1, 2 or 3) worked, since the path is in the message. Now I know that syrinx doesn't work. So I add it to my list of those remailers that failed the test. Also on this list are: * Nately and * Usura as they both share the same properties as Syrinx: The chained message gets home ONLY is Syrinx / Usura / Nately is the _last_ link of the chain. (Nately *used* to be as good as Homer, Tower, Hal and Portal, but not anymore. Around Christmas, it changed its performance. Maybe the operator tinkered - don't what what he did, but he made it worse.) Two other remailers failing our tests, but for other reasons, are: * Extropia and * Vox. Neither forwards attached files. In other words, anything outside of the original encrypted block gets sent on. This makes both of them useless for reply blocks, for instance. - -- anon - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBLzUSGCoZzwIn1bdtAQH3IgF9FIUMOTd6rsihkaXUCKn4w14qTtOEfjcD sXFPB/62K6NQZCuHTUPBDa30jh2c8sJY =6tBU -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----