Now, if set, deactivate the separate chain for anonymous mail with the switch left to the remailer chain for mail, and press the '...'
button right to the 'Remailer news' field, so that the 'Remailer Chain Selector' window opens. First check whether your preceding
update was successful and the data presented are current. The line 'Stats from ...' at the bottom of the window shows at what time
the data were collected. The upper list shows all available Mixmaster remailers and their specifics, at the bottom of the window you
see the selected chain. By double clicking on an item you're able to add it to or remove it from the 'Remailer chain' list. Then
there are buttons to move entries up or down the chain, whereas the 'Rnd' button adds a random remailer ('*'), which allows Mixmaster
for each copy of the message to select a different remailer at the given position. For security and reliability reasons using mostly
random remailers ('* * ...') is the way to go as long as there's no sound reason to determine specific ones. By the way, by
clicking at the column headers you're able to change the ordering scheme of the remailer list. The added latencies of the remailers
you chose give an indication of how long your messages will be on their way. Press 'Accept' to close the window and set your remailer
chain accordingly.
With a proper configuration of the SMTP server and, dependent on the 'Use 'Anon Mail S Host'' selection, the '(Anon) Mail S'MTP
client, you should already be be able to send a 'dummy' message, which is simply a mail without any destination used to fool
adversaries. Go to the 'Misc' > 'Dummy' tab and press the 'Send Dummy Message' button. OmniMix then sends a mail that includes
all necessary directives to its own SMTP server, which itself tries to forward it to the Mixmaster network. The 'Log' list informs
you about any problem during this process.
If your computer is connected with the Internet, but you only want to see the local handling of your messages without sending anything,
press the 'Simulation' button, so that the indicator lights will turn yellow. Besides, in simulation mode, after getting mails from a
POP3 account, no messages are deleted from that mailbox, and retrieving nym messages from a newsgroup doesn't result in an increment of
the message pointer.
Then go to the 'Anon' tab, the central of OmniMix. Activate the switch 'Always use Mixmaster for Mail'. At 'Anon From - Mail'
specify whether you wish to use an alias and, if so, enter that name. However, in the beginning it's recommended to let OmniMix
remove the 'From' header without replacement by selecting 'Non' from the pulldown menu.
Prepare a test mail, preferably directed to your own mail account, and send it. In OmniMix's 'Log' list you can observe all steps of
the processing of your mail in detail (arrival - conversion - sending), including - in case of problems - what's going wrong.
Besides, at the 'Raw Data' tab you find the results of the single conversion steps up to the data transferred to Mixmaster, whereas
the 'Mixmaster' list presents you the encoded packets ready to be sent including a listing of their individual remailer chains.
While testing the system, it's advisable to have a careful look at the data handed over to Mixmaster to rule out any revelation of
sensitive data. In the same way the sending of any message, for which secrecy is of major importance, should be preceded by a test
run in Simulation Mode or even disconnected from the Internet.
