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Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#31

Post by irungentoo »

nly wrote: post #20
irungentoo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every peer is identified by a curve25519 public key. To add someone as a friend, you add that public key. Connections between friends are encrypted. http://nacl.cr.yp.to/box.html is the crypto used. https://github.com/irungentoo/toxcore/blob/master/docs/Tox_m... describes the protocol used to connect securely to friends after they find themselves. This protocol has PFS, message padding to prevent length based leaking…

Are IP addresses encrypted in the DHT?

Instead of doing things like encrypting ips, peers have temporary DHT public keys.

The only way to get the ip of someone from their Tox id is by knowing their public DHT key which they will only send you if they are your friend.

How this works is described in detail: https://github.com/irungentoo/toxcore/blob/master/docs/Preve...

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#32

Post by Plexion »

In the spirit of supporting as many individuals as possible, Tox websites are now accessible as a hidden service via Tor.

The hidden service mirror has been stripped of Piwik tracking, and forms of Javascript, and soon we'll label outbound links.

i2p support will also follow soon.

Tox main site: http://kdzzxucnh4fyovxg.onion/

Tox developer documentation: http://kdzzxucnh4fyovxg.onion/docs/

Tox wiki: http://kdzzxucnh4fyovxg.onion/wiki

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#33

Post by Aqueous »

I guess you've settled on a name, pretty completely, but tox evokes all sorts of bad feelings like "Toxin", "Detox" - generally feelings associated with the idea of poison or of poisoning yourself. From a marketing perspective this might not be the least sinister name you could have chosen. I realize this comes out of 4chan and we make a point of not giving a shit about marketing but...

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#34

Post by alex_duf »

kragniz wrote: post #29
alex_duf wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good question. What makes it secure ? "encryption" is not enough. Do you have central servers or is it protocol using P2P ? how do you connect one client to another ? What kind of encryption ? How are the key generated, can we change them etc...

The whole protocol is decentralized and peer to peer. Each person in the network has a public and private key. The NaCl library is used to do all of the encryption.

Cool. Is this direct connection from peer to peer or does the communication bounce from one node to another as a TOR communication would do ? (I'm guessing direct for obvious latency reasons when using audio / video)

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#35

Post by imaginenore »

Aqueous wrote: post #33

I guess you've settled on a name, pretty completely, but tox evokes all sorts of bad feelings like "Toxin", "Detox" - generally feelings associated with the idea of poison or of poisoning yourself. From a marketing perspective this might not be the least sinister name you could have chosen. I realize this comes out of 4chan and we make a point of not giving a shit about marketing but...

I disagree, it sounds like "talks" to me.

Pretty cool name actually.

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#36

Post by irungentoo »

alex_duf wrote: post #34
kragniz wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole protocol is decentralized and peer to peer. Each person in the network has a public and private key. The NaCl library is used to do all of the encryption.

Cool. Is this direct connection from peer to peer or does the communication bounce from one node to another as a TOR communication would do ? (I'm guessing direct for obvious latency reasons when using audio / video)

Direct connection when possible.

Connection routed over one TCP node when direct connections are impossible due to NAT issues.

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#37

Post by curun1r »

Aqueous wrote: post #33

I guess you've settled on a name, pretty completely, but tox evokes all sorts of bad feelings like "Toxin", "Detox" - generally feelings associated with the idea of poison or of poisoning yourself. From a marketing perspective this might not be the least sinister name you could have chosen. I realize this comes out of 4chan and we make a point of not giving a shit about marketing but...

It seems to be intentional, or at least acknowledged...the name of one of the Mac clients is 'Poison'.

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#38

Post by Danieru »

Aqueous wrote: post #33

I guess you've settled on a name, pretty completely, but tox evokes all sorts of bad feelings like "Toxin", "Detox" - generally feelings associated with the idea of poison or of poisoning yourself. From a marketing perspective this might not be the least sinister name you could have chosen. I realize this comes out of 4chan and we make a point of not giving a shit about marketing but...

Also disagree, to me it sounds like Torx the screwdriver bit. It makes me think of a very utilitarian program.

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#39

Post by TallboyOne »

Aqueous wrote: post #33

I guess you've settled on a name, pretty completely, but tox evokes all sorts of bad feelings like "Toxin", "Detox" - generally feelings associated with the idea of poison or of poisoning yourself. From a marketing perspective this might not be the least sinister name you could have chosen. I realize this comes out of 4chan and we make a point of not giving a shit about marketing but...

The first thing I thought of was toxic.

Re: Tox: A simple, distributed, free, secure Skype replacement. Now alpha with A/V

#40

Post by Byzantine »

imaginenore wrote: post #35
Aqueous wrote: post #33

I guess you've settled on a name, pretty completely, but tox evokes all sorts of bad feelings like "Toxin", "Detox" - generally feelings associated with the idea of poison or of poisoning yourself. From a marketing perspective this might not be the least sinister name you could have chosen. I realize this comes out of 4chan and we make a point of not giving a shit about marketing but...

I disagree, it sounds like "talks" to me. Pretty cool name actually.

They intended "Talks" but most people will just associate it with toxicity or toxins. They really need to come up with a better name if they want to succeed.
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