From: lmccarth@cs.umass.edu
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 96 23:41:01 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunks Mailing List)
Subject: Web Browsers and Anonymous Mail (Was: NSA net trolling)
Message-ID: <199602210740.CAA13722@thor.cs.umass.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Wayne Madsen wrote somewhere:
> A knowledgeable government source claims that
> the NSA has concluded agreements with [...] Netscape to
> permit the introduction of the means to prevent the anonymity of
> Internet electronic mail, [...]

I suspect this may actually mean that they're pushing Netscape to
incorporate cryptographic authentication into browser email, which I think is
a useful development. I'm not aware of any public remailers previously 
operated by Netscape Communications Corp. that have now shut down. ;)

At any rate, it's an excuse for me to ask some questions:

(0) I'm not aware of any class library objects or methods in stand-alone Java
for calling the local mail transport agent. Is there any class library 
support in Java+{Navigator, HotJava, Mosaic, NetCruiser, the AOL web tool, 
etc.} for applet calls to the local mail agent that's configured in the 
browser ?  

I would prefer not to reimplement SMTP using the Socket class in my own 
applets. Ideally I'd like to have an applet that presents a form with some 
entry boxes and check boxes, quantizes and encrypts the input according to 
the check box settings, and spews the resulting byte streams to the MTA. 

(1) As I recall, I used to be able to set (as an Option) the path and name of 
the local MTA (e.g. /usr/lib/sendmail) in an earlier version of Netscape. 
That seems to have disappeared in Navigator 2.0. Is there indeed no longer a 
way to set that ?  

It occurs to me that we could have achieved partial integration of
remailing into Navigator quite cheaply with that option.

Comments from Sun and/or Netscape and/or anyone else would be welcome.
Thanks :)

-Lewis	"You're always disappointed, nothing seems to keep you high -- drive 
	your bargains, push your papers, win your medals, fuck your strangers;
	don't it leave you on the empty side ?"  (Joni Mitchell, 1972)