OmniMix • Tutorial • Installation

OmniMix neither mixes up your system (environment variables, registry etc.), nor does it require additional software besides Mixmaster, GnuPG, Tor and a few DLLs, which all find their place in the OmniMix folder and its subfolders. Existing installations of Mixmaster, GnuPG or Tor are not influenced in any way, as the respecting executable files are used without installing the corresponding systems. Using relative paths allows you to keep the whole OmniMix system on an optionally encrypted removable device for maximum security.

First download the setup executable 'OmniMix_x.x.x_Setup.exe' along with its signature file 'OmniMix_x.x.x_Setup.exe.asc' from the OmniMix website. If you have PGP or GnuPG installed, check the authenticity of the setup file using the author's public key (Key-ID 0xBFD92D29), available at https://www.danner-net.de/index/danner.asc.

It's recommended to backup an existing installation first. Deinstalling it isn't necessary, as an update doesn't harm present statistics files, keyrings etc. or influence your settings.

During the setup process you were asked for an appropriate installation folder, the components you want to install, and whether specific icons have to be created.

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This is the startup screen of the setup program.

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Please read the license agreement, as it tells you possible legal limitations of the OmniMix branch you intend to install.

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This list gives you an idea of modifications made between releases like bug fixes and functions added to the program.

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When running OmniMix on a Windows Vista system it may be necessary to install it outside the "Program Files" folder hierarchy, as otherwise Vista's User Account Control (UAC) protection mechanism silently saves newly created data files to a user specific place in the virtual store (%userprofile%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore'). This is called virtualization, which separates code from data and data of different users from each other. But some OmniMix components may thereby no longer be able to locate their data and fail.

You're allowed to install multiple instances of OmniMix for different purposes and run them at the same time. Let's suppose you have to separate the Tor routing of multiple simultaneous tasks in order to prevent adversaries at the otherwise single exit node from getting an idea of their interrelation. As no more than one Tor process can be run by an OmniMix instance only running OmniMix multiple times can solve your problem.

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The single components are

•	OmniMix	The core OmniMix system files.
•	HTML Help System	The web browser based OmniMix help system.
•	Mixmaster	Required for sending anonymous messages to the Mixmaster network.
•	GnuPG	Required for Whole-Message-Encryption (WME) and interaction with nym servers.
•	Tor	Used for an additional anonymization of the connections from your computer to the Internet. It hides which servers you contact and which of their services (mail delivery and retrieval, Usenet access to download nym messages etc.) you use. You're allowed to integrate a preexisting Tor installation as well, but keep in mind, that all connections that use the same Tor routing might be assigned to each other by an adversary! On the other hand there's no restriction in running several Tor systems simultaneously. The Tor client integrated in OmniMix offers the advantage of having the whole anonymizer software removable in one place without leaving any traces elsewhere.
•	Hamster	News server used to download the alt.anonymous.messages newsgroup and cache it locally in order to extract nym reply messages.
•	Server Certificate Creator Files	OpenSSL executable, configuration and batch files that allow you to create individual OmniMix server certificates.
•	Client Configuration Files	Registry files that automatically add OmniMix routed mail and news accounts to Outlook Express.

Remember to give each of multiple OmniMix instances its own folder.

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Create a startup icon to launch OmniMix from within the Windows boot procedure. This way the anonymizing proxy service is always at your client software's disposal without taking further action. Later on at the 'Misc' > 'Display' tab define whether it has to start minimized to a tray icon.

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Up to this point you can abort the installation without alteration. By pressing the 'Install' button the OmniMix system gets written to disk.

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The installation process usually takes only a few seconds.

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This information gives you an idea of your next steps to configure a working system.

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Select whether after finishing the installation you want to read the OmniMix tutorial and / or OmniMix has to be started.

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In order to display the OmniMix HTML help system your web browser is launched.

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As you'll see in the next chapter after its installation OmniMix is operational out-of-the-box.

You may be interested in getting an impression of the files to be installed without having to run the setup program. In that case extract its contents for example using the Inno Setup Unpacker:

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c:\InnoUnpack>innounp.exe -x -d"OmniMix Setup Files" OmniMix_2.1.2_Uno_Setup.exe
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You end up with the following folder hierarchy, where color-marked folders and files have to be placed by the setup process (mandatory / optional), whereas those with the annotation 'added by ...' are created automatically later on (only files necessary for operation are mentioned):

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OmniMix
¦   OmniMix.exe          (OmniMix server application)
¦   OmniMix.exe.asc      (Signature file)
¦   License.txt          (License agreement)
¦   History.txt          (History of development)
¦   OmniMix Website.url  (Link to the Website)
¦   libeay32.dll         (OpenSSL DLL)
¦   ssleay32.dll         (OpenSSL DLL)
¦   hashcash.dll         (from the Hashcash .zip file)
¦   OmniMix.ini          (added by OmniMix)
¦   OmniNym.ini          (added by OmniMix)
¦
+---cer
¦       omnimix_demo.pem  (OmniMix server demo certificate)
¦       openssl.exe       (OpenSSL executable)
¦       libeay32.dll      (OpenSSL DLL)
¦       ssleay32.dll      (OpenSSL DLL)
¦
+---htm  (OmniMix HTML help system)
¦       ...
¦
+---mix  (Mixmaster system)
¦   ¦   mix.exe          (from the Mixmaster 3.0.x .zip file)
¦   ¦   mpgp.exe         (from the Mixmaster 3.0.x .zip file)
¦   ¦   mixlib.dll       (from the Mixmaster 3.0.x .zip file)
¦   ¦   libeay32.dll     (from the Mixmaster 3.0.x .zip file)
¦   ¦   COPYRIGHT        (from the Mixmaster 3.0.x .zip file)
¦   ¦   README_303.txt   (from the Mixmaster 3.0.x .zip file)
¦   ¦   manual.txt       (from the Mixmaster 3.0.x .zip file)
¦   ¦   mix.cfg          (added by OmniMix)
¦   ¦   mixrand.bin      (added by OmniMix)
¦   ¦   pubring.mix.raw  (added by OmniMix on an Internet update)
¦   ¦   mlist.txt.raw    (added by OmniMix on an Internet update)
¦   ¦   pubring.mix      (created by OmniMix)
¦   ¦   mlist.txt        (created by OmniMix)
¦   ¦
¦   +---om  (added by OmniMix for Mixmaster interaction)
¦   ¦       ...
¦   ¦
¦   +---pool  (added by Mixmaster for message output)
¦           ...
¦
+---gpg  (GnuPG system)
¦   ¦   gpg.exe      (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦   iconv.dll    (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦   trustdb.gpg  (empty GnuPG trust database)
¦   ¦   random_seed  (added by GnuPG)
¦   ¦
¦   +---doc  (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦       COPYING       (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦       COPYING.LIB   (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦       README        (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦       README.iconv  (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦       README-W32    (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦
¦   +---gnupg.nls  (from a GnuPG installation)
¦   ¦       ...
¦   ¦
¦   +---tmp  (added by OmniMix for GnuPG interaction)
¦           ...
¦
+---tor  (Tor system)
¦   ¦   tor.exe              (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦   libevent-2-0-5.dll   (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦   libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll  (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦   libssp-0.dll         (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦   zlib1.dll            (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦   libeay32.dll         (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦   ssleay32.dll         (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦   Tor Website.url      (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦
¦   +---Documents
¦   ¦       AUTHORS  (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦       LICENSE  (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦       README   (from a Tor installation)
¦   ¦
¦   +---data
¦       ¦   torrc         (from a Tor installation)
¦       ¦   torrc.orig.1  (from a Tor installation)
¦       ¦   geoip         (from a Tor installation)
¦       ¦   geoip6        (from a Tor installation)
¦       ¦   ...           (added by Tor)
¦       ¦
¦       +---hsvc  (added by Tor on Hidden Service creation)
¦               hostname
¦               private_key
¦
+---ham  (Hamster system)
¦   ¦   HService.exe     (from a Hamster installation)
¦   ¦   HControl.exe     (from a Hamster installation)
¦   ¦   Hamster.chm      (from a Hamster installation)
¦   ¦   Groups.hst       (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   Pulls.hst        (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   Scheduler.hst    (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   Server.hst       (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   PullNewsAam.hsc  (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   Accounts.!!!     (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   Password.!!!     (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   Hamster.ini      (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦   HControl.ini     (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦   ¦
¦   +---Server
¦       ¦
¦       +---127.0.0.1
¦               Server.ini  (OmniMix Hamster configuration)
¦
+---omd  (Folder for OmniMix Mailer definition files)
¦       OmniMix_Posting_Test.omd  (OmniMix Mailer definition file)
¦
+---cnf  (Folder with client configuration presets)
¦       Outlook-Mail_via_OmniMix.reg  (Client configuration file)
¦       Outlook-News_via_OmniMix.reg  (Client configuration file)
¦
+---nym  (Folder for OmniMix Nym data files)
¦       remailer-key@nym.mixmin.net.asc         (Nym server public key)
¦       remailer-key@nymph.paranoici.org.asc    (Nym server public key)
¦       remailer-key@nym.alias.net.asc          (added by OmniMix on an Internet update)
¦       remailer-key@nym.komite.net.asc         ...
¦       remailer-key@nym.panta-rhei.eu.org.asc
¦       list@nym.alias.net.txt
¦       list@nym.komite.net.txt
¦       list@nym.panta-rhei.eu.org.txt
¦       ...
¦
+---dat  (added by OmniMix on an Internet update)
¦       cyp_keys.asc
¦       cyp_capa.txt
¦       cyp_stat.txt
¦       m2n_stat.txt
¦       mxs_capa.htm
¦       nym_stat.txt
¦       ...
¦
+---key  (added by OmniMix)
¦       nym.pkr
¦       nym.skr
¦       srv.pkr
¦       srv.skr
¦       rem.pkr
¦       rem.skr
¦       rcp.pkr
¦       rcp.skr
¦       nym.1.pkr
¦       ...
¦
+---msg  (added by OmniMix with nym/WME raw message storage activated)
        19TK32S2F618L.7304285164@anonymous.poster.nme
        83a9f46b0553ef49722a5fc0b2683a57@dizum.com.nme
        3aewsio4i6sf8goctjk5amfqa106rh23@omnimix.invalid.wme
        eps35kkuoad8gnw8trro2o36nei5bfl5@omnimix.invalid.wme
        ...
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OmniMix will later on add an 'om' and a 'pool' directory to the 'mix' folder, which are the places where the temporary files used for Mixmaster interaction (input resp. output) are stored. That's why OmniMix has to have read/write access to this directory!

If you intend to communicate through Tor and selected the installation of the Tor component instead of integrating an existing Tor installation, it's necessary to make it use the 'tor\data' folder within OmniMix for its buffer and leave the rest of your system untouched. That's why the line 'DataDirectory data' is added to the torrc file, so that its content looks like

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# This file was generated by Tor; if you edit it, comments will not be preserved
# If you want a config file with comments, look for torrc.orig.1 or similar

ControlPort 9051
Log info stdout
SocksListenAddress 127.0.0.1
SocksPort 9050
DataDirectory data
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After completing the setup the configuration has to take place.

As long as you can live with a few restrictions, running OmniMix on a Linux machine in a Wine environment is possible, though experimental.

To install Wine, here on a Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon (Linux 5.15.0-53-generic x86_64), open a Terminal window and enter the commands

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sudo apt-get install wine
sudo apt-get install winetricks
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Now the OmniMix setup executable has to be downloaded or copied e.g. to the user's Downloads folder.

I prefer to use the Midnight Commander to prepare the setup program. Install and run that file manager with the commands

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sudo apt-get install mc
sudo mc
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Then use it to copy the file OmniMix_x.x.x_Setup.exe e.g. to the user's Downloads folder.

To grant all users the execute privilege either execute the command

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sudo chmod a+x /home/$USER/Downloads/OmniMix_x.x.x_Uno_Setup.exe
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or within the Midnight Commander highlight the file with a right mouse click, select File | Chmod from the menu bar, check the entry 'execute/search by others' and click 'Set'.

Finally create a Wine folder, where you then store a 32-bit Wine environment for your OmniMix installation including a set of standard Windows fonts, and run the OmniMix setup executable to install the application.

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mkdir /home/$USER/Wine
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/Wine/OmniMix winetricks corefonts
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/$USER/Wine/OmniMix wine /home/$USER/Downloads/OmniMix_x.x.x_Setup.exe
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With Wine it's not recommended to run OmniMix directly from within the setup program. So better clear the respective checkboxes before closing the installation window. Start OmniMix either from the Applications menu, where you'll find a new Wine entry holding the OmniMix items you installed, or with a double-click on the OmniMix desktop icon, that also should appear now.

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In case the N|S|P proxy server activity lamps remain red, port numbers at the Server tab have to be increased above 1024 (e.g. NNTP to 2019, SMTP to 2025 and POP3 to 2110), as the usage of port numbers below 1024 requires root privileges.

Be aware, that at the current stage Mixmaster program calls fail within that environment, which is why only the Yamn network can be used to anonymize outgoing messages. Therefore select Remailer 'Yamn' at the 'State Int' tab with Remailer set to 'Default' at the 'SetNym' and 'Mailer' tab.

And there may be problems with TLS protected proxy server connections only allowing unencrypted client communication.