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+ <br />
+<b><big>About SILC</big></b>
+<br /> <br />
+SILC (Secure Internet Live Conferencing) is a protocol which provides
+secure conferencing services on the Internet over insecure channel. SILC
+superficially resembles IRC, although they are very different internally.
+They both provide conferencing services and have almost the same set of
+commands. Other than that, they are nothing alike. The SILC is secure and
+the network model is entirely different compared to IRC.
+<br /> <br />
+SILC provides security services that any other conferencing protocol does
+not offer today. The most popular conferencing service, IRC, is entirely
+insecure. If you need secure place to talk to some person or to group of
+people over the Internet, IRC or any other conferencing service, for that
+matter, cannot be used. Anyone can see the messages and their contents in
+the IRC network. And the most worse case, some is able to change the
+contents of the messages. Also, all the authentication data, such as,
+passwords are sent plaintext in IRC.
+<br /> <br />
+SILC is much more than just about `encrypting the traffic'. That is easy
+enough to do with IRC and SSL hybrids, but even then the entire network
+cannot be secured, only part of it. SILC provides security services, such
+as sending private messages entirely secure; no one can see the message
+except you and the real receiver of the message. SILC also provides same
+functionality for channels; no one except those clients joined to the
+channel may see the messages destined to the channel. Communication
+between client and server is also secured with session keys and all
+commands, authentication data (such as passwords etc.) and other traffic
+is entirely secured. The entire network, and all parts of it, is secured.
+We are not aware of any other conferencing protocol providing same
+features at the present time.
+<br /> <br />
+SILC has secure key exchange protocol that is used to create the session
+keys for each connection. SILC also provides strong authentication based
+on either passwords or public key authentication. All authentication data
+is always encrypted in the SILC network. Each connection has their own
+session keys, all channels have channel specific keys, and all private
+messages can be secured with private message specific keys.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<b>Distribution</b>
+<br /> <br />
+The SILC is distributed currently in three different packages. The SILC
+Client package, the SILC Server package and the SILC Toolkit package. Each
+package has its intended audience.
+<br /> <br />
+- SILC Client package is intended for end users who are looking for a good
+and full featured SILC client. The SILC Client package currently includes
+Irssi-SILC client that supports all SILC features, themes and much more.
+It is curses based but has a possibility of adding various other frontends
+to it. The Irssi-SILC client's user interface is based on the Irssi client
+(see <a href="http://irssi.org/" class="normal">Irssi project</a>).
+<br /> <br />
+- SILC Server package is intended for system administrators who would like
+to run their own SILC server or SILC router. The package includes the
+actual server but not the client. If you are running a server and would
+like to connect it to the silc.silcnet.org router you can contact us.
+<br /> <br />
+- SILC Toolkit package is intended for developers and programmers who
+would like to create their own SILC based applications or help in the
+development of the SILC protocol. The actual development of the SILC is
+done in the Toolkit and all the other packages are based on the Toolkit
+releases. The Toolkit includes SILC Protocol Core library, SILC Crypto
+library, SILC Key Exchange (SKE) library, SILC Math library, SILC Modules
+(SIM) library, SILC Utility library, SILC Client library and few other
+libraries. It also includes the Irssi-SILC Client, another client as an
+example how to program with the Toolkit and the SILC Server.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<b>Licensing</b>
+<br /> <br />
+SILC is an Open Source (or Free Software) project and it has been released
+under the <a href="?page=copying" class="normal">GNU General Public License</a>. The SILC is free to use and everyone
+is allowed to freely redistribute and change the SILC under the terms of the
+GNU GPL. While there is no guarantee for the product, SILC is made as secure
+as possible. The fact that the software and the protocol is open for public
+analysis is a good thing for end user.
+<br /> <br />
+Specification of SILC protocol is available for anyone to look at. There
+exist four Internet Drafts that have been submitted to the <a
+href="http://www.ietf.org/" class="normal">IETF</a>. See <a
+href="?page=docs" class="normal">documentation page</a> for more information.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<b>Contact</b>
+<br /> <br />
+Feedback and comments are welcome. Bug reports should be sent to the
+development mailing list.
+<br /> <br />
+Development mailing list address:
+<a href="mailto:silc-devel@lists.sourceforge.net" class="normal">
+silc-devel@lists.sourceforge.net</a>
projects / silc.git / blobdiff