
                             Multi-Part Messages


Remailers impose a size limit on messages. These vary, but some remailers will
handle 200K or more. Others will lose messages as small as 60K or less. Send
yourself different size test messages to determine which remailers you can use
for larger messages.

Nym accounts accessed directly often handle 1 Meg messages.

Also note that when a file is encrypted, it often grows, because it is converted
to radix-64 (text). However this is offset slightly by PGP's compression
routines.

Keep in mind that if the recipient is using a nym account, the remailers in his
reply block may lose the message if it is too large.

If it becomes necessary to send an attachment as a multi-part message, you will
need to encode the file manually into pieces, then mail each piece as a text
file. The recipient then saves the pieces and usually must decode them manually.

You may use any of the following methods to create multi-part messages:


                    PGP 
                    UUEncode 
                    MIME 


PGP

PGP can be instructed to break a file into pieces as it encrypts it. The size of
the output files is determined by the +armorlines switch. The following command: 

pgp +armorlines=750 -ea myfile.zip myfriend@somewhere 

tells PGP to make the output files 48K (750 lines) each. You must include the
"-a" which tells PGP to make the output text, suitable for mailing. However, you
can exclude the "-e" switch: 

pgp +armorlines=750 -a myfile.zip 

This would not encrypt the file, but would convert it to text suitable for
mailing. Any PGP user can retrieve the file, no key required. 

Both of these methods will create myfile.as1, myfile.as2, myfile.as3, etc. You
would then mail each of these text files. Attach them, one per message, leaving
the Encrypt and MIME fields blank.

Note that +armorlines=0 causes PGP to not break the file into pieces, regardless
of length. You can set the default armorlines in PGP's config.txt. The default
is 750.


Recipient:
The recipient of these messages can decode them two ways:

     Save the messages as message.as1, message.as2, etc., all in the same
     directory. Then decrypt the first file, message.as1. PGP will find the
     other pieces.

     Alternatively, the recipient can copy and paste the messages, in order,
     into a huge text file, save it, and decrypt it.

PGP labels the messages, Part 01 of 03, etc. 

If the sender does not send a message indicating what filetype it is, PGP will
usually tell you when decrypting what kind of file it is.




UUEncode

The uuencode.exe program included with Potato can split files into uuencoded
pieces suitable for mailing. Enter:

uuencode myfile.zip 

The default filesize is 950 lines (61K). If this is too large, you can adjust
it:

uuencode -s 650 myfile.zip 

This will create files myfile1.uue, myfile2.uue, etc, suitable for mailing.

For the full instructions to uuencode, download the accessry.zip file for
Potato.


Recipient:
Save each file in the same directory as message1.uue, message2.uue, etc. and run
uudecode.exe (available in accessry.zip) on the first file: 

uudecode message1.uue

The original file will be reconstructed.

Additionally, most mail programs support UUE. You can also decode using
udec.exe, a very handy utility which handles both MIME and UUE. See
accessry.zip. 




MIME

The mpack.exe program included with Potato can split files into MIME pieces
suitable for mailing. Enter: 

mpack -o myout -m 50000 myfile.zip 

This will create the files myout.01, myout.02, etc. suitable for mailing. The
"50000" indicates that the maximum file size should be 50K.

For the full instructions to mpack download the Potato accessory files,
accessry.zip.


Recipient:
If you receive a multi-part MIME message, save each piece in the same directory
with the names message.01, message.02, etc. Then enter: 

munpack message.* 

This will create the file message.1, which you should rename to myfile.zip.

Or, using udec.exe:

udec message.*

Udec will automatically rename the file to it's original filename.

Additionally, some mail programs support multi-part MIME messages.


