Looking for guinea pigs for encryption tutorial

[Mirrorshades]

I've just finished up the first draft of my encryption tutorial, and I'm looking for guinea pigs to test it out. I think it's complete and reasonably understandable, but then I'm not new to the subject anymore. Any help pointing out flaws, weaknesses, things I've missed would be most welcome.

This tutorial is oriented at Windows users, as my impression is that most users are using Windows. I'll be more than happy to revise it for Mac users, as soon as I get my hands on a Mac (which should be in the next month or two. Linux users, by and large, don't need a tutorial.)

I've decided to conduct this tutorial over email; TorMail to be specific. Why TorMail? Because it's anonymous, that's why. Also, the image hosting service I'm using for the screenshots is located on an .onion domain, which makes TorMail a natural fit. Finally, because the screenshots are hosted on an .onion server, any non-Tor-ified email account will be unable to retrieve the screenshots.

Just drop me a line at my TorMail address: mirrorshades <at> tormail.net

N.B.: For those using TorMail, you will have to use the RoundCube interface to be able to see the screenshots. I know I've said RoundCube is less secure, because it uses Java, but I think an exception can be made in this case. You will receive a warning about loading external images; you'll need to tell the system that it's ok to load external images, otherwise the screenshots won't show up, and that's the entire point of using RoundCube.

Please use a nickname other than what you use on the boards -- I don't really need to know who you are. Even if you have to setup another email account, you're better off that way.

Remember, practice compartmentalization!

Mirrorshades

 

[bufbiker]

I would love to give it a shot but I'm so computer illiterate that you would want to hunt me down and killl me before it was all over with.

 

[Darkness]

I will do this.

 

[Mirrorshades]

I would love to give it a shot but I'm so computer illiterate that you would want to hunt me down and killl me before it was all over with.

Au contraire, I love a challenge!

Seriously, you don't need to be a computer geek to do this. All you need to be able to do is to follow instructions.

To get started, you need to be running Tor. The easiest way to do that is to go to the Tor homepage, at: https://www.torproject.org/

When that page loads, you'll see a purple button that says "Download Tor". When you put your mouse cursor on the purple button, it will change color to orange. Click on that button, and it'll take you to the downloads page.

Choose which operating system you're running -- it's most likely Windows.
The first option you'll see is near the top of the page, it's the download for
Windows:

Tor Browser Bundle for Windows
Version 2.2.35-8 - Windows 7, Vista, and XP

Click on the orange button that says, "Download Tor Browser Bundle."

Next you'll see a "File Security Warning" asking if you want to run or save this file?

Click Save. You'll be prompted for a location to save the file, My Documents is a good place as any. The file name that is going to be saved will be: tor-browser-2.2.35-8_en-US.exe

When the download is completed, you'll see a message that says, "Download complete". You'll see 3 buttons: Run, Open Folder, and Close.

Choose Open Folder. The folder where the file was downloaded will open, and the file you downloaded, i.e. tor-browser-2.2.35-8_en-US.exe, will be highlighted. Double click on the file to open it.

You'll see a message come up: "Open File Security Warning" with Run and Cancel buttons -- click Run.

Next you'll see a dialog box come up that says 7zip self extracting archive.
It will have a extraction destination shown as:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\

Click the Extract button. This may take several minutes. When the extraction process is finished, you will have a new folder in My Documents called Tor Browser.

Double-click on the Tor Browser folder. Inside you'll see several sub-folders, and what looks like a little purple onion icon beside "Start Tor Browser.exe"

You'll want to right-click on the little onion icon. A sub menu should pop up, with an option of Send To. Put your mouse cursor over Send To; and you'll see a list of destinations: click on Desktop, create shortcut.

This will create a shortcut to the Tor Browser/Vidalia executable on your Desktop, so it'll be easier to launch Tor and the Browser later.

Double-click on the little onion icon. This will launch the Vidalia control panel, which will launch Tor.. After a minute or two, you'll see a little onion icon in your Windows system tray. Initially, the onion icon will be yellow, while the Tor circuit is being constructed; after the circuit is complete, the onion icon will change color to green.

A few minutes after that, the Aurora browser, a slightly-modified version of Firefox, will come up. The homepage for Aurora/Firefox is Tor's check page.
This will tell you, "Congratulations. Your browser is configured to use Tor."
It will also show you an IP address that is not your own.

Just under File, Edit, View, History, etc. you'll see a tab labeled, "Are you using tor?" Just to the right of it, you'll see another, smaller tab, with a plus sign on it. click on the tab with the plus sign, and another browser tab will open up.

Type in the following address in the address bar: http://www.tormail.net/

About a quarter of the way down the page, you'll see a little link in red:
http://jhiwjjlqpyawmpjx.onion/

click on that link, and it will take you to the Tormail signup page.

In the upper right hand corner of hte page, you'll see 5 buttons: Home, Login, Signup, Help and Contact Us.

click on Signup to start the signup process. You'll be asked for a username and a password. The maximum password length is 25 characters.

You will also be asked to solve a captcha. After that, click the Complete Signup button. Your new email account will be ready to use in about 2-3 minutes.

You can then click on the Login button, You will then be presented with two interface options. For the time being, you can choose RoundCube. You will then be presented with a login screen asking for your username and password.

You should be good to go from that point.

Mirrorshades <[email protected]>

 

[Jumperz]

Buf just had a mental breakdown I can tell! Hhaha

 

[bufbiker]

There is smoke coming out of my ears and my eyes are bleeding.
I'll have to print this and try it when I get home from work.

 

[Dawgpound_Hank]

LMAO!!!

 

[MR. BMJ]

buf, if you look at some of mirror's older posts on other threads, it gives a link with a video demo on how to do everything he just stated above

That's what i used when downloading tor and the email.

 

[bufbiker]

Thanks BMJ. It will be Saturday before I can try it. Life is very busy right now between work and training.

 

[rockedup]

any problems sending/receiving emails from certain sources while using tormail? or is it just super slow to receive? also is it possible to use something such as countermail from within tor? do you advise against?