PSST Quick Start Tutorial
Introduction
If you're like me, you'll find that you learn fastest by being guided
in simple steps, without being dragged through the technical entrails.
This quick tutorial aims to do just that - to get you up and running
fast, and to give you the option of studying the technicalities
later if and when you choose.
Overview
To conduct a conversation in PSST, you need to do 5 things:
- Choose another user who has PSST installed
- Give this user your Public Key File
- Get this other user's Public Key File
- Get the other user's IP Address
- Make the connection, and start relating
This tutorial will walk you through all these steps, hopefully with as
little confusion as possible.
Step 1 - Find another user
Contact the other person, and make sure they also have PSST installed.
Note that PSST is presently unable to work through services like AIM, ICQ,
MSN Messenger, IRC etc (although support for these may happen in later
versions). At present, PSST works through direct TCP connections.
If they have PSST installed, continue to the next step.
Step 2 - Give this user your Public Key File
I'll explain later how this works.
For now, let's just do it!
This is simple - just switch to the main PSST Window, click on Keys,
then click on Export My Public Key.
When the file dialog comes up, just choose a directory where you want to
save your public key file, then click on OK.
Open up Explorer (or your favourite file manager), browse to the folder
you just chose, and you should see a file called myname-public.psst,
where myname is the 'nickname' you chose when you installed the
program.
Just send this file to the other user - either put it onto a floppy or CD and
physically give it or post it to them, or email it to them, or stick it up
on a website for them to download it.
Step 3 - Get this other user's Public Key File
Assuming this other user has also followed Step 2 above, you should have
their Public Key File - a file called theirname-public.psst,
where theirname is the nickname they chose when they installed PSST.
Now, click on Keys, then Import Someone's Public Key.
You'll see another file selection window pop up - just browse to where
you stored this other user's Public Key File, which will be called
theirname-public.psst, click on this file, then click OK.
You should now see a window pop up, with the title 'Security Alert'.
For now, just click Yes.
When the Key Import Successful
window pops up, just click OK.
At this point, you should see the other user's nickname showing in the
left pane of the PSST program window. If you see this, and if the other
person has also followed these instructions, you are now ready to chat,
safe in the knowledge that your conversation will be private and secure
from prying eyes and ears!
Note that you only need to do this 'Key Exchange' once for each new
person you want to talk to. Once you have their key in your system, and they
have yours, you'll be able to hook up conveniently at any time without going
through this procedure.
Step 4 - Find the other user's Internet Address
An Internet Address is just a unique set of words and/or numbers that
are a bit like a phone number. It lets you make an internet connection to that
user.
Note - if the other user is on a regular dial-up connection,
their IP address will change every time they connect to the net through
their ISP.
For your convenience, the main window has the "Get My IP Address"
button. All this does is make a brief http (web) connection to
http://netforth.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/myip.cgi. PSST sends absolutely no information;
the hit to an external web server is the only reliable way of determining
your IP address. However, if you feel mistrusting, you can visit the
above URL yourself through your favourite web client (browser).
So the other user will need to determine their IP address, and give
this to you, by phone, chat room or email.
Once you know the other user's host or IP address, you're
ready to connect.
Step 5 - Making The Connection
This is the easy part.
Click on the PSST Main Window. Click on the other person's nickname in the left
pane, then click the Connect button.
You'll then see a window pop up, with the heading "Connecting to peer theirname",
where theirname is the nickname of the other person.
You'll see a field labelled Default Host Address. Put into this field the
IP Address (or hostname the other user has given you.
Then, simply click OK.
At this point, one of two things will happen.
Either:
- A Session Window will pop up, displaying the message
"*** Peer theirname authenticated successfully.",
OR
- A 'connection failed' window will pop up
.
If you get the chat window, then you're ready to talk. It should be fairly
familiar to you if you've used chat programs before. Just type in text into the small
bottom pane, and click the Send button (or press Control-S.
More instructions on the Session Window are available
here.
Also, if you like, you can click on the Enable Send voice checkbox at the top,
and (providing you have a soundcard and microphone set up), you can then talk to them.
But, if you see the 'connection failed' window pop up instead, then you might
need to do some troubleshooting and find out what went wrong. Possible causes of
failed connections include:
- The other user doesn't have PSST running
- The other user hasn't imported your Public Key
- You haven't imported the other user's Public Key
- You didn't enter the other user's IP Address correctly
- The other user changed their Listen on Port setting (in their
Edit/Settings window, and haven't told you their new port
number.
- The other user hasn't correctly determined their IP Address,
which could happen if the user is behind a firewall, NAT Router
or Proxy Server, or if their ISP has forced their web connections
through a proxy server.
- The other user cannot receive incoming TCP connections, because
their ISP, their network administrator or their firewall is blocking
incoming connections.
If you run into any of these problems, you'll need to take your own steps to
sort them out. Please don't contact me for support until or unless you're
absolutely sure you've eliminated all of the above possible causes.
Conclusion
If you've followed all the above, and successfully connected to the other person,
then Congratulations! - you've now reclaimed one of your basic human
rights, and are free to relate to whoever you choose, without fear of privacy
violation.
Note - your ISP or government will be able to determine the fact
that you're having a conversation with the other person, how long you're talking
for, and when and from where you are talking. But they won't be able to
listen in on what you or they are saying or typing.
In later versions of PSST, I hope to implement some more thorough protections
that will make it difficult or impossible for others to work out exactly who
you're talking to. Maybe you might like to offer a donation to help me with
ongoing development.