From: Karl L. Barrus <barrus@tree.egr.uh.edu>
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 21:42:51 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: No Subject
Message-ID: <9301110542.AA20105@tree.egr.uh.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Hal <74076.1041@compuserve.com> said:
>My understanding was that everyone who tried to talk to him would get
>two aliases assigned automatically.

Actually, what I expected to happen was this: the acknowledgement of
an anonymous id on penet for the anonymous id on pax would be
generated, and this ack would be sent via the chain back to me
(barrus@tree) since I established the chain.  

That is, I had linked anon.435@pax to an5022@penet to barrus@tree.
Then, upon mailing to anon.435@pax from my other account (which
already has an anonymous id established, so another would not be
generated), the mail would proceed to an5022@penet, which would create
an id and send it back to anon.435@pax.  Now I expected this ack to
then be turned right around, send to an5022@penet and then on to
barrus@tree.  So I was expecting the creation of another anonymous id,
but the acknowledgement didn't go to barrus@tree.

My original thinking was that once I established the id's in both
direction, when someone responded to anon.435@pax, they would be
allocated an id if they didn't have one.  And since penet had by this
time seen anon.435@pax, no new id would be made, and the mail would
proceed on the me.  

Anyway, that was an experiment that seems to lead to explosive
anonymous id growth :-) I agree with Matthew that not mailing back an
ack would help cut down the flurry of mail, but it still results in
all sorts of extra id's.  I was hoping the whole thing would be like a
pointer: mail to id1@pax forwards to id2@penet and then on to me with
no extraneous account manufactured.

But since we have our own cryptographically protected remailers, we
cypherpunks can make our own remailing chains (Hal's constructed
anonymous addresses).  This way, you can decided on the path of your
outgoing mail and your return mail: create the appropriate header, and
attach your message on the end.  To receive responses, just send a
response header with the return path encrypted along with instructions
to your recipient to cut the response header into a new file, add a
message to the bottom, and mail to the appropriate remailer.  (Note:
I've used this method successfully twice, so it isn't too hard to do).
Just remember that if your recipient doesn't have pgp, don't route
your mail through extropia or their message will be blocked.

If I get a chance I'll work on a program that will generate the
appropriate header given routing input.

/-----------------------------------\
| Karl L. Barrus                    |
| barrus@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXTMail) |
| elee9sf@menudo.uh.edu             |
\-----------------------------------/