Hans Fugal wrote: > >You are of course welcome to use whatever you like, but I don't follow >your argument. You are saying you use this simp thing because you don't >want to tell people what IM program to use, but as I understand it there >is no standard for encryption with most protocols so if you're going to >have encryption you have to force the other side to use the same client. >In that case, it's better to force them to use a Free client than a >non-free client, and you will find it very hard to convince us >otherwise. > > That's what is nice about Simp. The protocol itself doesn't need to support the encryption. When you install Simp it acts as a proxy to the protocol. You point all of you connections to 127.0.0.1 instead of say msn.messenger.com. In Windows the installer does this for you. So all protocols use Simp encryption. Your messages are sent to Simp, encrypted, sent to your contact, recieved by their Simp, decrypted, and then fed to the IM program. I imagine it works this way with gaim or Trillian encryption as well, but having an external program handling the encryption makes it so anybody can use whatever they want and remain encrypted. And maybe that's part of the confusion, I haven't been clear on that. Simp isn't an IM program at all, it is completely separate and just runs in the background. That's the big difference between it and gaim/trillian encryption.
I am using gaim and kopete, some are using Trillian, and most others are using the standard MSN/AOL client and we are all encrypted just fine with Simp. I have used Simp with MSN, AOL, and Yahoo and used many different program combination. As I said before, I like to bounce around and try all kinds of IM programs. When I change programs my keys don't change so my contacts wont even realize I have. We have even tested this out with packet sniffing programs. >As for alternatives, gaim-encryption was already mentioned. > Gaim-encryption isn't an alternative because everybody has to switch to gaim to use it. I tried to get many of my contacts to switch to Trillian because it has encryption as well, but out of all my contacts I think I managed to get one to change. >You mentioned cross-protocol IM. Jabber the protocol supports that, and all >you need is a decent jabber client (gaim works for this). Jabber also >has an encryption standard so you can use encryption with other jabber >users if they use a client that supports it (gaim doesn't, >unfortunately, but psi does and it works on windows as well). > > I'll look into this Jabber, but it sounds like it isn't an alternative either since most of my contacts will continue to use the standard MSN/AOL client. .===================================. | This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. | | Don't Fear the Penguin. | | IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net | `==================================='
