Little help for anonymous mailer
An anonymous remailer is a computer which has been configured to run remailer software. This software is a specialized kind of email server software. Unlike average email server which goes to great lengths to log all incoming/outgoing traffic and add identifying and traceable info to its outgoing mail (in the form of headers) remailer software ensures that outgoing mail has been STRIPPED CLEAN of any identifying information! Thus the name 'anonymous' remailer.
The remailer performs certain automated tasks which include retrieving mail, decrypting/processing that mail (only mail that is properly encrypted and formatted), obeying the directives within the message and, finally, delivering - remailing - the finished product to a second party in anonymized form. When received by that second party it will reveal only that it was sent from an anonymous source (usually the remailer's name and email address). The IP address shown will be the IP address of the remailer machine.
Using a chain of remailers you can send messages totally anonymous, but you can receive too with a nym, download web pages, send files in FTP, talk in newsgroups, etc...
There are, more or less, four types of remailers:
- Pseudonymous remailers
A Pseudonymous remailer, simply takes away the email address of the sender, gives a pseudonym to the sender and sends the message to the intended recipient (that can be answered via that remailer).
- Cypherpunk remailers, also called type I
A Cypherpunk remailer sends the message to the recipient stripping away the sender address on it. You can not answer a message sent via a Cypherpunk remailer. You can usually encrypt the message sent to the remailer, and the remailer will decrypt it and send it to the recipient address hidden inside the encrypted message. In addition, you can chain 2 or 3 remailers, so each remailer can’t know who is sending a message to whom. Cypherpunk remailers do not keep logs of transactions.
- Mixmaster remailers, also called type II
Mixmaster remailers require use of a program on your computer to write your messages. Such programs are not supplied as a standard part of most operating systems or mail management systems.
- Mixminion remailers, also called type III
A Mixminion remailer attempts to address the following challenges in Mixmaster remailers: replies, forward anonymity, replay prevention and key rotation, exit policies, integrated directory servers, dummy traffic. They have been implemented for the Linux and Windows platforms and are currently available. Some implementations are open source.
