--- /dev/null
+ <br />
+<b><big>Frequently Asked Questions</big></b>
+<br /> <br />
+<a href="#f1_0" class="normal">1. General Questions</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_10" class="normal">1.1 What is SILC?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_20" class="normal">1.2 When was SILC Project started?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_30" class="normal">1.3 Why SILC in the first place?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_40" class="normal">1.4 What license covers the SILC release?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_50" class="normal">1.5 Why SILC? Why not IRC3?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_55" class="normal">1.6 What platforms SILC supports?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_60" class="normal">1.7 Where can I find more information?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f1_70" class="normal">1.8 I would like to help out, what can I do?</a>
+<br /> <br />
+<a href="#f2_0" class="normal">2. Protocol Questions</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_10" class="normal">2.1 What is the status of SILC protocol in the IETF?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_20" class="normal">2.2 How much the SILC protocol is based on IRC?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_30" class="normal">2.3 Why use SILC? Why not IRC with SSL?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_40" class="normal">2.4 Can I talk from SILC network to IRC network?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_45" class="normal">2.5 Does SILC support file transfer?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_47" class="normal">2.6 I am behind a firewall, can I use SILC?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_50" class="normal">2.7 How secure SILC really is?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_60" class="normal">2.8 Does SILC support instant messaging?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_70" class="normal">2.9 Why SILC does not have LINKS command like in IRC?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_80" class="normal">2.10 Why SILC does not have STATS command like in IRC?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f2_90" class="normal">2.11 I have suggestions to SILC Protocol, what can I do?</a>
+<br /> <br />
+<a href="#f3_0" class="normal">3. Client Questions</a><br />
+ <a href="#f3_10" class="normal">3.1 Where can I find SILC clients?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f3_20" class="normal">3.2 Can I use SILC with IRC client and vice versa?</a>
+<br /> <br />
+<a href="#f4_0" class="normal">4. Server Questions</a><br />
+ <a href="#f4_10" class="normal">4.1 Where can I find SILC servers?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f4_20" class="normal">4.2 Can I run own SILC server?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f4_30" class="normal">4.3 What is the difference between SILC server and SILC router?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f4_40" class="normal">4.4 Why server says permission denied to write to a log file?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f4_50" class="normal">4.5 When I connect to to my server, it says "server does not support one of your proposed cipher", what is wrong?</a>
+<br /> <br />
+<a href="#f5_0" class="normal">5. Toolkit Questions</a><br />
+ <a href="#f5_10" class="normal">5.1 What is SILC Toolkit?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f5_20" class="normal">5.2 Is the SILC Toolkit Reference Manual Available?</a><br />
+ <a href="#f5_30" class="normal">5.3 How do I compile the Toolkit on Unix</a><br />
+ <a href="#f5_40" class="normal">5.4 How do I compile the Toolkit on Win32</a><br />
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_0"></a>
+<b>1. General Questions</b><br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_10"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: What is SILC?</samp><br />
+A: SILC (Secure Internet Live Conferencing) is a protocol which provides
+secure conferencing services in the Internet over insecure channel. SILC
+is IRC like although internally they are very different. Biggest
+similarity between SILC and IRC is that they both provide conferencing
+services and that SILC has almost same commands as IRC. Other than that
+they are nothing alike.
+<br /> <br />
+Biggest differences are that SILC is secure what IRC is not in any way.
+The network model is also entirely different compared to IRC.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_20"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: When was SILC Project started?</samp><br />
+A: The SILC development started in 1996 and early 1997. But, for various
+reasons it suspended many times until it finally got some wind under its
+wings in 1999. First public release was in summer 2000.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_30"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Why SILC in the first place?</samp><br />
+A: Simply for fun, nothing more. And actually for need back in the days
+when it was started. When SILC was first developed there really did not
+exist anything like this. SILC has been very interesting and educational
+project.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_40"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: What license covers the SILC release?</samp><br />
+A: The SILC software developed here at silcnet.org, the SILC Client, the
+SILC Server and the SILC Toolkit are covered by the GNU General Public
+License.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_50"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Why SILC? Why not IRC3?</samp><br />
+A: Question that is justified no doubt of that. SILC was not started to
+become a replacement for IRC. SILC was something that didn't exist in 1996
+or even today except that SILC is now released. However, I did check out
+the IRC3 project in 1997 when I started coding and planning the SILC protocol.
+<br /> <br />
+But, IRC3 is problematic. Why? Because it still doesn't exist. The
+project is almost at the same spot where it was in 1997 when I checked it
+out. And it was old project back then as well. That's the problem of IRC3
+project. The same almost happened to SILC as well as I wasn't making real
+progress over the years. I talked to the original author of IRC, Jarkko
+Oikarinen, in 1997 and he directed me to the IRC3 project, although he
+said that IRC3 is a lot of talking and not that much of anything else. I
+am not trying to put down the IRC3 project but its problem is that no one
+in the project is able to make a decision what is the best way to go about
+making the IRC3 and I wasn't going to be part of that. The fact is that
+if I would've gone to IRC3 project, nor IRC3 or SILC would exist today. I
+think IRC3 could be something really great if they just would get their
+act together and start coding the thing.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_55"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: What platforms SILC supports?</samp><br />
+A: The SILC Client is available on various Unix systems and is reported to
+work under cygwin on Windows. The SILC Server also works on various Unix
+systems. However, the server has not been tested under cygwin as far as we
+know. The SILC Toolkit is distributed for all platforms, Unix, Cygwin
+and native Windows.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_60"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Where can I find more information?</samp><br />
+A: For more technical information we suggest reading the SILC Protocol
+specifications. You might also want to take a look at the <a
+href="?page=docs" class="normal">documentation </a> page on the web page.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f1_70"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: I would like to help out, what can I do?</samp><br />
+A: You might want to take a look at the <a
+href="?page=contribute" class="normal">Contributing</a> page and the <a
+href="?page=todo" class="normal">TODO</a> list. You might also want to join the
+SILC development mailing list.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_0"></a><br />
+<b>2. Protocol Questions</b><br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_10"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: What is the status of SILC protocol in the IETF?</samp><br />
+A: The SILC protocol specifications has been submitted currently as
+individual submissions. There does not currently exist a working group
+for this sort of project. Our goal is to fully standardize the SILC and
+thus submit it as RFC to the <a href="http://www.ietf.org/" class="normal">IETF</a> at a
+later time.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_20"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: How much SILC Protocol is based on IRC?</samp><br />
+A: SILC is not based on IRC. The client superficially resembles IRC
+client but everything that happens under the hood is nothing alike IRC.
+SILC could *never* support IRC because the entire network toppology is
+different (hopefully more scalable and powerful). So no, SILC protocol
+(client or server) is not based on IRC. Instead, We've taken good things
+from IRC and left all the bad things behind and not even tried to burden
+the SILC with the IRCs problems that will burden IRC and future IRC
+projects till the end. SILC client resembles IRC client because it is
+easier for new users to start using SILC when they already know all the
+commands.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_30"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Why use SILC? Why not IRC with SSL?</samp><br />
+A: Sure, that is possible, although, does that secure the entire IRC
+network? And does that increase or decrease the lags and splits in the
+IRC network? Does that provide user based security where some specific
+private message are secured? Does that provide security where some
+specific channel messages are secured? And I know, you can answer yes to
+some of these questions. But, security is not just about applying
+encryption to traffic and SILC is not just about `encrypting the
+traffic`. You cannot make insecure protocol suddenly secure just by
+encrypting the traffic. SILC is not meant to be IRC replacement. IRC is
+good for some things, SILC is good for same and some other things.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_40"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Can I talk from SILC network to IRC network?</samp><br />
+A: Simple answer for this is No. The protocols are not compatible which
+makes it impossible to directly talk from SILC network to IRC network or
+vice versa. Developing a gateway between these two networks would
+technically be possible but from security point of view strongly not
+recommended. We have no plans for developing such a gateway.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_45"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Does SILC support file transfer?</samp><br />
+A: Yes. The SILC protocol support SFTP as mandatory file transfer
+protocol. It provides simple client to client file transfer, but also
+a possibility for file and directory manipulation. Even though the SFTP
+is the file transfer protocol the support for file transferring has been
+done so that practically any file transfer protocol may be used with SILC
+protocol.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_47"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: I am behind a firewall, can I use SILC?</samp><br />
+A: Yes. If your network administrator can open the port 706 (TCP) you can
+use SILC without problems. You may also compile your SILC client with
+SOCKS support which will proxy your SILC session through the firewall.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_50"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: How secure SILC really is?</samp><br />
+A: A good question which I don't have an answer for. We have tried to make
+SILC as secure as possible. However, there is no security protocol or
+security software that has not been vulnerable to some sort of attacks.
+SILC is in no means different from this. So, it is suspected that there
+are security holes in the SILC. These holes just need to be found so
+that they can be fixed.
+<br /> <br />
+But to give you some parameters of security SILC uses the most secure
+crytographic algorithms such as AES(Rijndael), Twofish, Blowfish, RC5,
+etc. SILC does not have DES or 3DES as DES is insecure and 3DES is just
+too slow. SILC also uses cryptographically strong random number generator
+when it needs random numbers. Public key cryptography uses RSA (PKCS #1)
+and Diffie-Hellman algorithms. Key lengths for ciphers are initially set
+to 256. For public key algorithms the starting key length is 1024 bits.
+<br /> <br />
+But the best answer for this question is that SILC is as secure as its
+weakest link. SILC is open and the protocol is open and in public thus
+open for security analysis.
+<br /> <br />
+To give a list of attacks that are ineffective against SILC:
+<br /> <br />
+- Man-in-the-middle attacks are ineffective if proper public key
+infrastructure is used. SILC is vulnerable to this attack if the public
+keys used in the SILC are not verified to be trusted (as any other
+protocol for that matter).<br />
+ - IP spoofing is ineffective (because of encryption and trusted keys).<br />
+ - Attacks that change the contents of the data or add extra data to the
+packets are ineffective (because of encryption and integrity checks).<br />
+ - Passive attacks (listenning network traffic) are ineffective (because
+of encryption). Everything is encrypted including authentication data
+such as passwords when they are needed.<br />
+ - Any sort of cryptanalytic attacks are tried to make ineffective by
+using the best cryptographic algorithms out there.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_60"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Does SILC support instant messaing?</samp><br />
+A: SILC is not an instant message (IM) system, like ICQ and the others.
+SILC is more IRC like system, "real-time", connection-oriented chat and
+that kind of stuff. But I guess IRC is too called an Instant Messaging
+system.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_70"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Why SILC does not have LINKS command like in
+IRC?</samp><br />
+A: It was felt that this information as an own command in SILC is not
+necessary. Moreover, the topology of the network might be undisclosed
+information even though the servers and routers in the network are still
+open. We feel that the network topology information, if it is wanted to be
+public, and the list of accessible servers can be made available in other
+ways than providing command like LINKS, which shows the active server
+links in IRC.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_80"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Why SILC does not have STATS command like in
+IRC?</samp><br />
+A: This too was considered as information that the protocol should not
+address. We feel that server implementations will need to implement some
+sort of adminstrative plugin, or module which provides various means of
+accessing statistical and other information in the server. And, we do
+consider this implementation issue, not protocol design issue.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f2_90"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: I have suggestions to SILC Protocol,
+what can I do?</samp><br />
+A: All suggestions and improvements are of course welcome. You should read
+the protocol specifications first to check out whether your idea is
+covered by them already. The best place to make your idea public is the
+SILC development mailing list.
+<br /> <br />
+
+
+<a name="f3_0"></a><br />
+<b>3. Client Questions</b><br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f3_10"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Where can I find SILC clients?</samp><br />
+A: The SILC client is available for free download from the silcnet.org web
+page. Some people have also mentioned words Java and Perl when talking
+about SILC clients. Nothing has appeared yet, though.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f3_20"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Can I use SILC with IRC client and vice versa?</samp><br />
+A: Generally the answer would be no for both. However, there exist already
+at least one IRC client that supports SILC, the <a
+href="http://irssi.org/" class="normal">Irssi client</a>. The current SILC client is
+actually based on the user interface of the Irssi client. So, yes it is
+possible to use SILC with some IRC clients and vice versa. But, this
+does not mean that you can talk from SILC network to IRC network, that is
+not possible.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f4_0"></a><br />
+<b>4. Server Questions</b><br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f4_10"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Where can I find SILC servers?</samp><br />
+A: The SILC server is available for free download from the silcnet.org
+web page. We are not aware of any other SILC server implementations, so far.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f4_20"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Can I run own SILC server?</samp><br />
+A: Yes of course. Download the SILC server package, compile and install
+it. Be sure to check out the installation instructions and the README
+file. You also should decide whether you want to run SILC server or SILC
+router.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f4_30"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: What is the difference between SILC
+server and SILC router?</samp><br />
+A: The topology of the SILC network includes SILC routers and the SILC
+servers (and SILC clients of course). Normal SILC server does not have
+direct connections with other SILC servers. They connect directly to the
+SILC router. SILC Routers may have several server connections and they
+may connect to several SILC routers. The SILC routers are the servers in
+the network that know everything about everything. The SILC servers know
+only local information and query global information from the router when
+necessary.
+<br /> <br />
+If you are running SILC server you want to run it as router only if you
+want to have server connections in it and are prepared to accept server
+connections. You also need to get the router connected to some other
+router to be able to join the SILC network. You may run the server as
+normal SILC server if you do not want to accept other server connections
+or cannot run it as router.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f4_40"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Why server says permission denied to write to a
+log file?</samp><br />
+A: The owner of the log files must be same user that the server is run
+under, by default it is user `nobody'. Just change the permissions and
+try again.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f4_50"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: When I connect to my server it says "server does
+not support one of your proposed ciphers", what is wrong?</samp><br />
+A: Most likely the ciphers and others has not been compiled as SIMs
+(modules) and they are configured as modules in the silcd.conf. If they
+are not compiled as modules remove the module paths from the ciphers and
+hash functions from the silcd.conf, so that the server use the builtin
+ciphers. Then try connecting to the server again. It is also possible
+that the client IS proposing some ciphers that your server does not support.
+<br /> <br />
+
+
+<a name="f5_0"></a><br />
+<b>5. Toolkit Questions</b><br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f5_10"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: What is SILC Toolkit?</samp><br />
+A: SILC Toolkit is a package intended for software developers who would
+like to develope their own SILC based applications or help in the
+development of the SILC. 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.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f5_20"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: Is the SILC Toolkit Reference Manual Available?</samp><br />
+A: Yes, partially completed reference manual is available in the Toolkit
+releases as HTML package and they are available from the silcnet.org
+website as well at the <a href="?page=docs" class="normal">documentation </a> page.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f5_30"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: How do I compile the Toolkit on Unix?</samp><br />
+A: You should read the INSTALL file from the package and follow its
+instructions. The compilation on Unix is as simple as compiling any other
+SILC package. Give, `./configure' command and then `make' command.
+<br /> <br />
+
+<a name="f5_40"></a>
+<samp class="blue">Q: How do I compile the Toolkit on Win32?</samp><br />
+A: We have prepared instructions to compile the Toolkit on Win32 in the
+Toolkit package. Please, read the README.WIN32 file from the package for
+detailed instructions how to compile the Toolkit for Cygwin, MinGW and
+native Win32 systems. We have also prepared ready MSVC++ Workspace files
+in the win32/ directory in the package that will compile automatically
+the Toolkit.
+<br /> <br />
projects / silc.git / blobdiff