Getting started with XMPP/Jabber and PGP for federated, encrypted messaging

This is a short thread where I explain how I started using the XMPP protocol and PGP encryption for secure messaging. I am not a security expert, but I am a mathematician and I am confortable with the Linux command line. This guide is for people who want to use PGP for secure messaging easily. You will need to be okay with typing commands into the Linux command line in order to do this, but I will tell you exactly what to enter.

Part 1: XMPP

Mastodon is like email, but for social media. You sign up for an account with a server, and then you can talk with any other accounts that are signed up on other servers, as long as your servers are getting along. (No one wants emails from the sketchy spam server, and we want to be able to choose between Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) XMPP (a.k.a. Jabber) is the same thing for text messaging.

Just like signing up for an email/Mastodon account, you need to sign up for an account. You can find a list of servers at list.jabber.at/ and will probably at least need to provide an email addess when making an account.

Once you have made an account, you need a client. On Linux, I've been having a good time using Dino (dino.im/). You can then enter your account name and password to log into your XMPP account and start chatting! There are both public rooms and you can also message directly with your friends.

#security #PGP #XMPP #FOSS #Jabber #Dino #MonoclesChat

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