[quote]makkun wrote:
PS: Quick question for the techies - how about email encryption. I never understood it really, but I’d like to learn. Anyone an expert here?[/quote]
Last time I looked at it, the main problem was that it won’t work if your recipient is not configured to decrypt your emails. So you can only send encrypted emails to someone who’s using the proper decryption software. Unless your email is very private, it’s probably more trouble than it’s worth.
Halway to that, you have signed emails, generally those that end with a large block of characters with something like “BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK” or some such. That allows for someone to verify that the email has not been tampered with and that it’s the original message as you wrote it.
For myself, I finally gave up on encrypted email. When I need to send something securely, I send a text file or a Word document that’s been zipped with a password. Then give the password to the recipient over the phone, or some other channel that email. Not perfect, but simple and good enough.
While I’m at it, another tip. Not directly related to security, but something that comes up fairly often when setting up games or some types of peer-to-peer communication. Finding your public IP. If you’re behind a router, your IP is likely something like 192.168.x.x; but your public IP, the one seen on the internet, can be a bit more difficult to find. You have to access the router, enter the password, search for the right page, etc.
I usually have the other party go to http://ipid.shat.net/ and read me the big red numbers.
[quote]The Blue Foxxx wrote:
Thanks Makkun - just installed the bugmenot extension for firefox, very easy to use and works on the sites I’ve tried so far.[/quote]