Step 1.b Install the Enigmail plugin for your email program
In your email program's menu, select Add-ons (it may be in the Tools section). Make sure Extensions is selected on the left. Do you see Enigmail? if so, skip this step.
- --
-
-
If not, search "Enigmail" with the search bar in the upper right. You can take it from here. Restart your email program when you're done.
#2 Make your keys
To use the GnuPG system, you'll need a public key and a private key (known together as a keypair). Each is a long string of randomly generated numbers that are unique to you. Your public and private keys are linked together by a special mathematical function.
+ +Your public key isn't like a physical key, because it's stored in the open in an online directory called a keyserver. People download it and use it, along with GnuPG, to encrypt emails they send to you. You can think of the keyserver as phonebook, where people who want to send you an encrypted email look up your public key.
+ +Your private key is more like a physical key, because you keep it to yourself (on your computer). You use GnuPG and your private key to decode encrypted emails other people send to you.
Step 2.a Make a keypair
-In your email program's menu, select OpenPGP -> Setup Wizard. You don't need to read the text in the window that pops up unless you'd like to, but it's good to read the text on the later screens of the wizard.
+In your email program's menu, select OpenPGP → Setup Wizard. You don't need to read the text in the window that pops up unless you'd like to, but it's good to read the text on the later screens of the wizard.
On the second screen, titled "Signing," select "No, I want to create per-recipient rules for emails that need to be signed."
Use the default options until you reach the screen titled "Create Key".
-On the screen titled "Create Key," pick a strong password! Your password should be at least 8 characters and include at least one lower case and upper case letter and at least one punctuation mark. Don't forget it, or all this work will be wasted!
-The program will take a little while to finish the next step, the "Key Creation" screen. While you wait, do something else with your computer, like watching a movie or browsing the Web. The more you use the computer at this point, the faster the key creation will go.
-When the OpenPGP Confirm screen pops up, select Generate Certificate and choose to save it in a safe place on your computer (we recommend making a folder called "Revocation Certificate" in your home folder and keeping it there. You'll learn more about the revocation certificate in Section 5. The setup wizard will ask you to move it onto an external device, but that isn't necessary at this moment.
-After creating your key, the Enigmail set-up wizard automatically uploaded it to a keyserver, an online computer that makes everyone's keys available through the Internet.
+On the screen titled "Create Key," pick a strong password! Your password should be at least 12 characters and include at least one lower case and upper case letter and at least one number or punctuation symbol. Don't forget the password, or all this work will be wasted!
+The program will take a little while to finish the next step, the "Key Creation" screen. While you wait, do something else with your computer, like watching a movie or browsing the Web. The more you use the computer at this point, the faster the key creation will go.
+When the OpenPGP Confirm screen pops up, select Generate Certificate and choose to save it in a safe place on your computer (we recommend making a folder called "Revocation Certificate" in your home folder and keeping it there. You'll learn more about the revocation certificate in Section 5. The setup wizard will ask you to move it onto an external device, but that isn't necessary at this moment.
Step 2.b Upload your public key to a keyserver
+In your email program's menu, select OpenPGP → Key Management.
+Right click on your key and select Upload Public Keys to Keyserver. Use the default keyserver in the popup.
+Now someone who wants to send you an encrypted message can download your public key from the Internet. + +
Troubleshooting
+-
+
- The progress bar never finishes +
- Close the upload popup, make sure you are on the Internet and try again. If that doesn't work, try again, selecting a different keyserver. +
- My key doesnt appear in the list +
- Try checking Show Default Keys. + +
- Don't see a solution to your problem? +
- Please let us know on the feedback page. + +
#3 Try it out!
-Now you'll try a test correspondence with a computer program named Adele, which knows how to use encryption. You'd follow the same steps if communicating with a real person. Then you'll send your first signed email to a real person!
+Now you'll try a test correspondence with a computer program named Adele, which knows how to use encryption.
Step 3.a Send Adele your public key
-This is a special step that you won't have to do when corresponding with real people. In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP -> Key Management. You should see your key in the list that pops up. Right click on your key and select Send Public Keys by Email. This will create a new draft message, as if you had just hit the Write button.
+This is a special step that you won't have to do when corresponding with real people. In your email program's menu, go to OpenPGP → Key Management. You should see your key in the list that pops up. Right click on your key and select Send Public Keys by Email. This will create a new draft message, as if you had just hit the Write button.
-Put at least one word (whatever you want) in the subject and body of the email, then hit send.
+Address the message to adele-en@gnupp.de. Put at least one word (whatever you want) in the subject and body of the email, then hit send.
-It may take two or three minutes for Adele to respond. In the meantime, you might want to skip ahead and check out the Use it well section of this guide. Once she's responded, head to the next step. From here one, you'll be doing just the same thing as when corresponding with a real person.
+It may take two or three minutes for Adele to respond. In the meantime, you might want to skip ahead and check out the Use it Well section of this guide. Once she's responded, head to the next step. From here on, you'll be doing just the same thing as when corresponding with a real person.
