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I'm a complete newbie, so first of all sorry for the terminology and if this is not the best place to ask. I want to create a new email account of my own using Tor browser, but I've come across the following issues:

  1. I do not really know what service I could use to create an email account; I've heard something about using Tails claw email service.
  2. Most other services asks you to have "JavaScript enabled in your browser" Please, I'd appreciate it so much if somebody could supply me some guidelines.

Now, I'm trying to verify GnuPG itself. Following the steps indicated in http://www.deepdotweb.co/jolly-rogers-security-guide-for-beginners/how-to-verify-your-downloaded-files-are-authentic/ , which first verifies that the verification program GnuPG is legit (even before trying to verify the Tails ISO file), when trying to verify the signature file named gpg4win-2.2.3.exe.sig, the following message pops up:

Kleopatra: Could not open file "" for reading: Input/output error (218136625)

It doesn't even know the name of the file, named file "", so it seems really weird. Unfortunately, I can't register to http://torforum.org/ and ask there since phpBB as been compromised for 2 weeks now. I'm using windows 7. How should I proceed? By the way, I'm trying to install Tails because I read you can create a new complete anonymous email account, not just a chat or messaging service, am I right? Thanks in advance.

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  • I am not an expert in gpg/pgp so I can't answer any questions.
    – Aurora
    Dec 23, 2014 at 19:31
  • Also, phpbb has been compromised? Can you link me to the cve?
    – Aurora
    Dec 23, 2014 at 19:41
  • phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=585738
    – GJC
    Dec 23, 2014 at 19:43
  • Update #2 15-12-2014 - 23:30 On Sunday Dec. 14th, several of the web servers powering phpBB.com were compromised.
    – GJC
    Dec 23, 2014 at 19:44
  • Ah. Phpbb's servers were comprimised. Torforum should be fine as long as the are not hosted by phpbb. Just take common sence mesures on a board that could be comprimized. Don't use a password that you have used before, and maybe use a disposable email.
    – Aurora
    Dec 23, 2014 at 19:50

1 Answer 1

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The email provider that you are talking about is called tormail. It ran from about 2010-2013, and allowed people to send messages into the tor network, as well as out of it. It was an interesting consept, but it was somewhat flawed. You can read more about it here.

Claws mail (as you mentions) can be set up to work with the onion router. You can view a discussion on that here. I do not know of any sort of hidden services that act as smtp servers. On top of this, you will most likely not be able to send mail outside the network. In the case you could, it would be a one way trip, reaching a hidden service directly from the clearnet is not easy.

Most people working within markets and/or general communication use XMPP servers. There are multiple hidden services that act as an XMPP server, as well as many clearnet servers that do a just as good job. Take a look at the XMPP observatory for clearnet xmpp servers.

On this page you can find a (rather lengthy) explaination on how to set up XMPP federation while utilizing Tor hidden services. You will have to find XMPP services over tor yourself. I know for a fact some lie within the hidden wiki, but you may have to do some digging to find a good server.

Also, do not turn on javascript in Tor unless you know all of the javascript that a website uses, and you know that it is clean. There are some hidden services that use javascript (a few forums, mostly for eye candy). You can see an artical from infosec on this here.

Here is a question on stack exchange I saw recently that kinda talks about how an smtp server would be run over tor, I am unsure if this helps.

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  • Hi!Thanks for replying, but what I wanna use is Claws mail
    – GJC
    Dec 23, 2014 at 18:19
  • I added some things on using Claws. I know Claws has a way to use a socks5 proxy, and it shouldn't be hard to use Tor's interface.
    – Aurora
    Dec 23, 2014 at 18:27
  • WOW, I'm afraid I'm a complete newbie and cannot understand such terminology; Does all that mean what I intent to do is not possible? Is there some guidelines on anonymity compiled somewhere that I can follow?
    – GJC
    Dec 23, 2014 at 18:35
  • It used to be possible (through tormail), but now it is not. There are no official guidelines to this. That is why I recommended xmpp. PS, most of the crap in this is fancy words and acronyms. Google helps a lot when you get started in all of this.
    – Aurora
    Dec 23, 2014 at 19:23
  • OK, Thank you very much, I appreciate your effort! I thought this was gonna be easier... :-)
    – GJC
    Dec 23, 2014 at 19:38

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