Searching for Privacy friendly Messenger

[happyyarou666]

hmmm odd i dont experience such issues atm , what os you using? about the file transfer yes that could be due to your router

[Cutting_Edgetech]

I'm using W7 X 64. I have recently relocated due to a bad economy, and all my gear is in storage so i'm staying with family for a while so i'm using their router. I checked the router logs, and I did not see anything to indicate it is blocking my transfers. The only thing is it is not logging much of anything even after changing the logging settings to log all blocked request. I normally use a Netgear Pro Secure UTM 25 which i really miss right now. I'm pretty sure it is the router now. I'm going to bypass the router completely, and plug directly into their modem to see if that is the problem.

[happyyarou666]

let us know how it goes

[caspian]

Originally Posted by tobacco

Both parties may need to use the same program to accomplish what you want. I have 2 suggestions. TeamViewer (free) - creates an encrypted tunnel between machines with many options including 'chat'. CryptoHeaven (free 3 month trial 'unlimited' times) - fully encrypted webmail service that includes 'encrypted chat'!!!

You mean this?

"You can remote control your partner's PC as if you were sitting right in front of it."

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

[mirimir]

Originally Posted by caspian

You mean this?

"You can remote control your partner's PC as if you were sitting right in front of it."

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

Maybe it's TeamSpeak -http://www.teamspeak.com/-

[Cutting_Edgetech]

Yes, I will not be using Team Viewer. Team Viewer gives the party you are chatting with remote access to your computer. I don't give anyone remote access to my computer. I'm trying to enhance my privacy; not compromise it.

[dread]

I see some people dont like that Brosix is not open source. Does anyone know of an open source program that will encrypt everything like Brosix? Chat, file transfers, video chat, voice chat etc...

[happyyarou666]

jitsi perhaps ? or pidgin thou pidgin dont encrypt voice and webcam since it dont have that yet to my knowledge

[Wroll]

RetroShare

[Cutting_Edgetech]

Thanks Wroll for you suggestion of Retroshare. It was not exactly what I was looking for, but it looks like something I would really like. Especially since it is opensource. When you suggested Retroshare I was thinking of Rshare that is now called Stealthnet. After looking I had looked over this one as far as P2P clients are concerned.

[Cutting_Edgetech]

Originally Posted by dread

I see some people dont like that Brosix is not open source. Does anyone know of an open source program that will encrypt everything like Brosix? Chat, file transfers, video chat, voice chat etc...

Dread, I went back and looked at Brosix again. Brosix might not be opensource, but I have not found any other client that offers so much. Opensource or not.. I believe it would be just as safe if not safer than any popular messenger client using OTR. Especially since it uses its own private network. No other client encrypts everything. If one exist then I have not found it yet.

[happyyarou666]

i wouldnt count on that if it where me exspecially concerning that this is about your security , btw jitsi is the same,just opensource , id suggest jitsi for video and voice chat and pidgin otr with tor plugin for anonymous secure chatting, good luck on your decision

[dread]

Originally Posted by Wroll

RetroShare

Ty Wroll, a new one for me. Looks good. Everything is encrypted. Unless I am mistaken it does not do video or voice does it?

Cutting_Edgetech I think it boils down to what exactly you want encrypted. If you want open source and want every thing encrypted, you will have to use different clients and or networks. If you look at Jitsi, XMPP appears to have the best support. There is XMPP clients and SIP clients. Jitsi encrypts everything but file transfers for XMPP. From looking around I would choose that for everything but file transfers and for file transfers use a different program. Mix and match like Jitsi and RetroShare. That is just a example. There is other programs that do file transfer encryption beside RetroShare. If all you want is just chat then there is several good options. If you want chat and and file transfers encrypted there is some programs that can do that.

If you do not care about open source then Brosix is the best choice IMO. It encrypts every thing.

Here is other software I have came across that has encryption Blink.

[happyyarou666]

http://www.brosix.com/privacy/

read it , opensource all the way , nough said? i hope so


dread is correct ,use jitsi for encrypted voice and video chat and another one for encrypted chat and file transfer or just for file transfer if you may , btw you can and always should religiously put your files into a truecrypt encrypted container wich will remove the need of encrypted file transfer alltogether, and use something like privatenote to distribute the pass of course over a seperate network from the one your transferring the file just to be extra safe id

use torchat to do file transfers abit slower but safer in means of keeping you 100% anonymous all times, of course as said dont link the password over the same network aka dont use torchat to send the link use jitsi with xmpp or something and DONT use email for sending passwords one-time-use links or not dont matter ,protip

[Wroll]

Originally Posted by dread

Ty Wroll, a new one for me. Looks good. Everything is encrypted. Unless I am mistaken it does not do video or voice does it?

Cutting_Edgetech I think it boils down to what exactly you want encrypted. If you want open source and want every thing encrypted, you will have to use different clients and or networks. If you look at Jitsi, XMPP appears to have the best support. There is XMPP clients and SIP clients. Jitsi encrypts everything but file transfers for XMPP. From looking around I would choose that for everything but file transfers and for file transfers use a different program. Mix and match like Jitsi and RetroShare. That is just a example. There is other programs that do file transfer encryption beside RetroShare. If all you want is just chat then there is several good options. If you want chat and and file transfers encrypted there is some programs that can do that.

If you do not care about open source then Brosix is the best choice IMO. It encrypts every thing.

Here is other software I have came across that has encryption Blink.

In the near future they said they'll introduce voice chat.

[luciddream]

I use Pidgin with the Pidgin Encryption & OTR plugins. I don't do voice or web cam... just keep it old school. Works great. Use it mostly to chat with people on IRC & AIM.

But as others said if you need it to do more (i.e. voice/video), then you'll want to consider other options.

[Cutting_Edgetech]

I have seen a lot of suggestion for me to try Jitsi. I should have mentioned i'm using it now. I have been using it for about 4 week now, and I really like it for chat. I have OTR installed with Jitsi. I can't remember if I installed OTR separately or if OTR came with Jitsi. The only dislike with Jitsi so far is that I have been unable to get Jitsi to work with file transfers of any kind. I tried port forwarding in my router, but it still would not work. It will not allow me to share any files of any type. They queue up, but the progress bar never moves. I tried Pidgin with, and without OTR but it was horrible. One of the most buggy peaces of software I have ever used. Pidgin constantly stopped responding, and would crash. I thought maybe Appguard or Online Armor could have been causing it. I shut them both down, and still Pidgin would just stop responding. The only thing I could do was kill pidgin from the process viewer if it did not eventually close on its own. I'm not interested in pidgin no more. Jitsi runs very smooth, and responds fast. I hope the Jitsi project stays alive.

[luciddream]

Originally Posted by Cutting_Edgetech

I tried Pidgin with, and without OTR but it was horrible. One of the most buggy peaces of software I have ever used. Pidgin constantly stopped responding, and would crash. I thought maybe Appguard or Online Armor could have been causing it. I shut them both down, and still Pidgin would just stop responding.

No such problems here on my setup. I use it with OTR & Pidgin-Encryption plugins. Stable & light.

Yet another example of how different setups yield completely different results. I'm beginning to think there is no truly buggy software... just buggy compatibility.

[happyyarou666]

same here works a dream , odd indeed

[luciddream]

Conflicts with another program almost definitely. You see it all the time in forums, people claiming that such & such program is buggy, unresponsive, etc... Either the program itself, or that the update was broken and made it that way.

I read these posts and am like: "oh, great..." But then I install/update the program, and low & behold, it never happens to me. So I've learned to just disregard those posts now unless the vendor itself acknowledges that it's a known problem. And heck, even then I still can't seem to reproduce it.

It's because I hardly have anything on my computer to cause the conflicts. I have an OS, a browser, a music player (VLC), Free Studio v4.1 (burning/ripping/converting software), CCleaner, Puran Defrag, OpenOffice v3.3, Irfanview, Stellarium, TrueCrypt, Pidgin Messenger, some emulators, and what you see in my sig. That's about it...

And to anyone that saw my reply about a certain poll, they pretty much all have their own partition... LOL!

[RADEON0101]

Here is a new kid on the block and it's open source, it's called Instantbird. It has addon/extension support, kind of like Firefox, but Instant Messenger style. I don't know, this seems like one you may want to keep an eye on...Looks promising.

Here are a few questions I found on the FAQ page:
Is Instantbird creating logs of my conversations and chats?

Yes, Instantbird is creating log files by default. Use the settings on the Privacy pane in the Options dialog to configure it to your liking. If you like to have a look at the files themselves, use the Show log folder... button on the same pane.

Where are the logs stored?

The name and path of the log files are as follows: path to profile/logs/protocol/buddy or chat name/date and time.txt (replace the parts in italic by actual values).


So, from what it sounds like...you can actually disable the log files from being created.

I also found out that Instantbird also comes with an about:config command, just like Firefox. This messenger seems like it will be highly configurable, which in turn tells me you can modify it for better privacy.

It's also cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X)

Here are some screenshots from the website:









Instantbird Website:
http://www.instantbird.com/

[luciddream]

Thanks Radeon. Definitely looks worth checking out. An about:config... awesome!

[RADEON0101]

Originally Posted by luciddream

Thanks Radeon. Definitely looks worth checking out. An about:config... awesome!

No problem

[Cutting_Edgetech]

Yes, it does look like my problems with Pidgin are isolated to this machine. I installed it on some of my other machines, and it runs fine on them. Probably because I built those machines myself, and they don't have all the crap software that this Sony Laptop came with. Its like WSA runs great on all my other machines, but it always gives me nonstop BSOD's with this Sony Laptop. Jitsi still runs great on my Sony Laptop so I will just stick with them.

[dread]

Psi in another open source chat program.

http://psi-im.org/features/

Always-on security

Using the same SSL technology that makes it possible for you to safely shop on the web, Psi automatically encrypts its communication with compatible IM servers to provide a secure connection over untrusted networks like public WiFi access points. For advanced security needs, Psi can also encrypt messages end-to-end with OpenPGP.

More info on Psi. Not sure what communication it encrypts or what it can do. Would have to ask them, maybe in their forum. There is also Psi+. Until something else comes along or gets update I do not see anything that can do what Brosix and Jitsi can do as far as capabilities. Forgot about Blink. RetroShare looks promising, they need to add video and voice imo both being encrypted.

Like I said before it boils down to what you want to do with your messenger and which parts of it you want encrypted.