[Enigmail] Keyservers

[John Clizbe]

Giano wrote:
> I discovered that the two programs have different keyservers to publish
> keys.

I don't see that as much of a problem, depending on the server software platform.

> Here is my question: to spread widely my key, do I have to publish it on
> every server? Or are they spread "automatically" from one server to
> another? 

One server is sufficient. Both of the most common keyserver software platforms,
SKS and the older PKS, propagate changes from one server to another.

PKS does this via email. SKS uses a set synchronization algorithm that detects
and exchanges all differences in the full key database (2,600,000+ keys) - it is
_very_ fast. A reconciliation cycle takes < 2-3 minutes.

As a choice of keyserver entry, I recommend hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net. (This
is the equivalent of http://pool.sks-keyservers.net:11371.) This address is not
a single server, it is a collection of 20 server addresses chosen at random from
a larger collection of about 33-34 addresses representing currently online and
in-sync SKS servers.

> I also find a server that requires email confirmation, what's the difference?

Perhaps if you tell us which server, we could answer.

-- 
John P. Clizbe                      Inet:John (a) Mozilla-Enigmail.org
You can't spell fiasco without SCO. hkp://keyserver.gingerbear.net  or
     mailto:pgp-public-keys at gingerbear.net?subject=HELP

Q:"Just how do the residents of Haiku, Hawai'i hold conversations?"
A:"An odd melody / island voices on the winds / surplus of vowels"

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 677 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://www.mozdev.org/pipermail/enigmail/attachments/20080821/4dc5bff9/attachment.bin>