ePOST Serverless Email System

Detailed Instructions For Creating Your Own Epost Ring

Step 0: Assumptions

• Make sure that you have ant (http://ant.apache.org) installed to build the project, as well as a new (>1.4.2) version of the Java SDK (http://java.sun.com) to compile the code.
• Download the latest epost source code from http://www.epostmail.org
• Ungzip and untar the source
• Build an ePOST jar by running ant epost-jar in the epost-2.4.5 directory. This should say 'build successful', and you should have an epost.jar in your local directory.

Step 1: Create new CA key pair

• In the epost-2.4.5 directory, run java -cp epost.jar rice.post.security.ca.CAKeyGenerator, and pick a password for the key pair.
• On some architectures it doesn't exit properly - once it says Wiring out public key [DONE], you can kill it. You should have two files - ca.keypair.enc and ca.publickey in your local directory.

Step 2: Create a ring certificate

• Again, in the epost-2.4.5 directory, run java -cp epost.jar rice.p2p.multiring.RingCertificate. This will ask you a bunch of questions about your ring. You'll likely want to answer the questions as

  CA password:	password you entered in Step 1
  Name of the ring: open	you can select a different name, but it requires a few changes
  Bootstraps: 192.168.0.1:10000,192.168.0.2:10000	or something similar
  Default port for nodes: 10000	choose the same port as in the above question
  Log upload server: 192.168.0.3:10000	you can disable this feature, just enter some IP and port
  Password for the ring keypair:	again, pick a password

• You should then have open.ringcert and open.ringkeypair.enc in your directory.

Step 3: Add the certificate and key pair, and compile

• First, copy the ring certificate and CA public key into the jar by running cp ca.publickey open.ringcert jars/epost/. If you chose a name other than open, then you'll also have to add the name of the ringcert to the text file ringcert.list
• Recompile by running ant clean epost-jar. The new epost.jar should contain everything for your ring.

Step 4: Create user accounts.

• For each user in your system, you will need to create accounts on your computer (since you created your own CA and ring). Don't worry, it's easy.
• To create a user, just run java -cp epost.jar rice.post.security.ca.CACertificateGenerator and answer the questions as

  Reading in encrypted keypair	enter the password from Step 2
  Base address [rice.epostmail.org]: open.epostmail.org	enter the ring name you chose before epostmail.org
  New username: user1	select the name for this user
  Ring name [Rice]: Open	and enter your ring name, with the first letter capitalized
  Password to encrypt keypair with:	finally, select a password for this user

  When the program prompts Create another key? y/n [No]:, you must choose no. There are bugs in the yes path. Just re-run the program.

• Then, you will have the file named username.epost which holds the user's key material.
• Lastly, create a node ID for each machine by running java -cp epost.jar rice.pastry.standard.CertifiedNodeIdFactory -pw password. The password in this case is the CA password you chose in step 1.
• This will create a file nodeId - be sure to create a separate one for each node
• To use epost, just copy the epost.jar, lib/ directory, nodeId, and username.epost file to each client machine.

Step 5: Booting the network

• On your bootstrap machines, in the directory with epost.jar, lib/ directory, nodeId, and username.epost, create the file proxy.params.
• In that file, add the line

  pastry_ring_A3B7000000000000000000000000000000000000_allow_new_ring=true

  The long hexadecimal number following pastry_ring_ depends on the name of the ring you chose. If you leave this line out ePost will tell you what the line should be when it first boots.
• On each machine (including the bootstraps), add the line below to the proxy.params file (this tells ePOST to ignore non-routeable IP addresses)

  pastry_proxy_connectivity_check_enable=false

• Now, boot this node by running java -jar epost.jar.