PGP digital signature - ?

A

Anonymous

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Sorry to be dense, but what do we do with the ".asc" signature file to verify the authenticity?
 
You need PGP installed in order to read those files. There is a freeware version of PGP called appropriately enough, PGP Freeware, which used to be produced by McAfee or somebody similar. Unfortunately the latest version is very limited as to what it can and cannot do, as I guess they want you to put down the hard-earned cash for the "fully featured" payware version. Not for me though.

Personally I use GNU PGP + GPGshell, which is a Windows GUI frontend to the command-line GnuPG for Windows. To get a copy of both, you can follow the following links:

GnuPG: http://www.gnupg.org/
The latest stable version is v1.23:
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/binary/gnupg ... -1.2.3.zip

And the link for GPGshell is: http://www.jumaros.de/rsoft/gpgshell.html

Installing GnuPG can be tricky, as there is a bit of manual work to be done, but fortunately GPGshell makes it easy. Just unzip GnuPG to an easily locatable "temp" folder, then install GPGshell. Once installed you can then use GPGconfig to install GnuPG automatically for you, by pointing it to the location of the temp folder you unzipped the contents of GnuPG to. Simple as that really, and once installed you not only have a fully featured and free way of verifying .asc files, you also be able to encrypt your own data for sending, or emails or whatever takes your fancy. :wink:
 
pgp for windows

;gnupg is not as mature a client for windows as some other distros. you'll need to install a gui on top of it in order to use it well.

;my suggestion is to try mit's distribution site for pgp --it's an earlier version (6.5.8), but unlike pgp corp's current freeware version, it has working plug-ins for mail clients.

;treehead
 
Re: pgp for windows

TreeHead said:
;gnupg is not as mature a client for windows as some other distros. you'll need to install a gui on top of it in order to use it well.

Well true, and that is why you use GPGshell. In fact a new version, v3.02 of it has not long been released. btw if you re-read my posting above, it is very easy to install both GnuPG and GPGshell.

;my suggestion is to try mit's distribution site for pgp --it's an earlier version (6.5.8), but unlike pgp corp's current freeware version, it has working plug-ins for mail clients.

Ah yes but unfortunately no version prior to v8 of PGP will work properly on WindowsXP, and as most people know v8 of PGP Freeware is extremely crippled in as to what you can and cannot do with it, plus it can only be used for "personal" use. There are no limitations with GnuPG + GPGshell combo.
 
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