Anonymizer's Total Net Shield and E-mail Encription

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by Blofeld's Cat, Jan 2, 2005.

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  1. Blofeld's Cat

    Blofeld's Cat Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2005
    Posts:
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    Happy New Year everyone,

    It's this cat's first post, so I hope I have placed it in the correct forum.

    I recently subscribed to Anonymizer's Total Net Shield (TNS) for its tunneling software, which I believed sent all my internet information through an encrypted tunnel before Anonymizer's servers decrypted it for transmission.

    Following, my reading some posts on this forum, I dicided employ Ethereal to check whether TNS was encripting my information.

    Whilst, I found that TNS encrypted my internet surfing, I found that it does not appear to encrypt my e-mail messages. The only e-mails it encrypted were test e-mails I sent through the installed Anonymizer e-mail account. However, I wish to use only my own e-mail addresses.

    The sales info states that all e-mail traffic should be encrypted too. Thus, I believed that TNS should encrypt any e-mail I send providing, of course, I run TNS in sucure mode.

    I have set-up the program as it suggests via the wizard and I wondered whether Ethereal is giving me spurious info or whether TNS only encrypts e-mail through its provided web account?

    I'd be most grateful for any help or ideas

    Blofeld's Cat o_O
     
  2. meneer

    meneer Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 27, 2002
    Posts:
    1,132
    Location:
    The Netherlands
    Hi Cat, welcome on Wilders :)

    As far as I can see, Anonymizer's TNS can only encrypt mail sent to an e-mail account on their mail server.
    A tunnel requires two end points. Those end points are your computer and Anonymizer's. Sending mail using your regular mail client to your regular mail server will not result in encrypted mail, it does not travels through Anonymizer's mailserver and TNS tunnel.
    Also: mail sent through TNS will only be encrypted in the TNS tunnel: from your system to Anonymizers'. If you sent mail to another TNS subscriber, that part will be encrypted too. If you send mail from your TNS mail account to another NOT-TNS e-mail account, the mail from TNS to the third party will not be encrypted. There's no end point, so no tunnel.

    (Sorry, I can't check all doc's, my company policy prohibits access to anonymizer.com :D)
     
  3. Blofeld's Cat

    Blofeld's Cat Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2005
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    Hi Andree,

    I am meowst grateful for your informative and helpful reply.

    Your explanation sounds logical to me. Just wish Anonymizer's marketing info would have made things clearer. To those without technical expertise in such matters, Anonymizer's info suggest that all e-mail will pass securely down its tunnel.

    Have a great 2005

    Blofeld's Cat:)
     
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