Frequently Asked Questions
1. General Questions
1.1 What is SILC?
1.2 When was SILC Project started?
1.3 Why SILC in the first place?
1.4 What license covers the SILC release?
1.5 Why SILC? Why not IRC3?
1.6 What platforms SILC supports?
1.7 How do you pronounce SILC?
1.8 Where can I find more information?
1.9 I would like to help out, what can I do?
2. Protocol Questions
2.1 What is the status of SILC protocol in the IETF?
2.2 How much the SILC protocol is based on IRC?
2.3 Why use SILC? Why not IRC with SSL?
2.4 Can I talk from SILC network to IRC network?
2.5 Does SILC support file transfer?
2.6 Does SILC support DCC or alike?
2.7 I am behind a firewall, can I use SILC?
2.8 How secure SILC really is?
2.9 Does SILC support instant messaging?
2.10 Why SILC does not have LINKS command like in IRC?
2.11 What does the session detaching/resuming mean?
2.12 Is anyone outside a channel able to see the channel
messages?
2.13 How can I register my channel in SILC?
2.14 Is it true that all messages are encrypted in SILC?
2.15 Can server or SILC operator gain operator mode on a channel?
2.16 Channel name doesn't have #-character or does it?
2.17 Does SILC support moderated channels?
2.18 What does the "watching" mean?
2.19 Is it possible to reject watching?
2.20 Is it possible to block private messages?
2.21 Is it possible to block channel messages?
2.22 Is it possible to block invites?
2.23 Does SILC support multimedia messages, like video/audio
streaming?
2.24 What kind of presence modes SILC support?
2.25 Does SILC support anonymity?
2.26 Does SILC support services?
2.27 I have suggestions to SILC Protocol, what can I do?
3. Client Questions
3.1 Where can I find SILC clients?
3.2 Can I use SILC with IRC client and vice versa?
3.3 The default theme sucks, where can I find a better one?
3.4 How do I send a private message?
3.5 How do I negotiate secret key with another user?
3.6 How do I negotiate secret keys behind a NAT?
3.7 How do I change channel modes?
3.8 What does the founder mode on channel mean, and how do I set
it?
3.9 I am founder of invite only channel, how can I join the
channel after I have left it?
3.10 How can I op or deop somebody on channel?
3.11 How do I set private key for channel, and what does that
mean exactly?
3.12 How do I transfer a file?
3.13 How can I get other users public keys?
3.14 How can I see the fingerprint of my public key?
3.15 I gave WHOIS to a nick, and it returned multiple replies,
why?
3.16 Is there a command to see all linked servers?
3.17 How do I list the users of a channel?
3.18 What is the difference between OPER and SILCOPER commands?
3.19 My Cygwin client crashes with message "Couldn't create
//.silc directory"
3.20 Why /join #silc and /join silc doesn't join the same
channel?
3.21 How do I detach my session from the server?
4. Server Questions
4.1 Where can I find SILC servers?
4.2 Can I run my own SILC server?
4.3 What is the difference between SILC server and SILC router?
4.4 Why server says permission denied to write to a log file?
4.5 When I connect to to my server, it says "server does not
support one of your proposed cipher", what is wrong?
4.6 Why SILC server runs on privileged port 706?
4.7 I see [Unknown] in the log file, what does it mean?
4.8 How can I generate a new server key pair?
5. Toolkit Questions
5.1 What is SILC Toolkit?
5.2 Is the SILC Toolkit Reference Manual Available?
5.3 How do I compile the Toolkit on Unix?
5.4 How do I compile the Toolkit on Win32?
5.5 Does the Toolkit package include any sample code?
1. General Questions
Q: What is SILC?
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.
Biggest differences are that SILC is secure what IRC is not in any
way. The network model is also entirely different compared to IRC.
Q: When was SILC Project started?
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.
Q: Why SILC in the first place?
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.
Q: What license covers the SILC release?
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.
Q: Why SILC? Why not IRC3?
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.
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.
Q: What platforms SILC supports?
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.
Q: How do you pronounce SILC?
A: SILC is usually pronounced as `silk', but you are free to pronounce
it the way you want.
Q: Where can I find more information?
A: For more technical information we suggest reading the SILC Protocol
specifications. You might also want to take a look at the
documentation page on the web page.
Q: I would like to help out, what can I do?
A: You might want to take a look at the Contributing page and the TODO
list. You might also want to join the SILC development mailing list.
2. Protocol Questions
Q: What is the status of SILC protocol in the IETF?
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 IETF at a later time. This can happen
only after we have requested the IETF to accept SILC as RFC. As of
today, we have not yet even requested this from the IETF. We want to
let the protocol mature a bit more.
Q: How much SILC Protocol is based on IRC?
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.
Q: Why use SILC? Why not IRC with SSL?
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.
Q: Can I talk from SILC network to IRC network?
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.
Q: Does SILC support file transfer?
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.
Q: Does SILC support DCC or alike?
A: SILC does not support the DCC commonly used in IRC. It does not
need it since it has builtin support for same features that DCC have.
You can transfer files securely and encrypted directly with another
client. You can also negotiate secret key material with another client
directly to use it in private message encryption. The private messages
are not, however sent directly between clients. The protocol, on the
other hand does not prohibit sending messages directly between clients
if the implementation would support it. The current SILC Client
implementation does not support it. This means that private messages
travel through the SILC Network. SILC protocol also has a capability
to support DCC and CTCP like protocols with SILC. None of them,
however have not been defined to be used with SILC at the present
time.
Q: I am behind a firewall, can I use SILC?
A: Yes. If your network administrator can open the remote 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.
Q: How secure SILC really is?
A: 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. SILC's security
features has been developed from attacker's point of view, and we've
tried to find all the possible attacks and guard the protocol against
them.
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.
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.
To give a list of attacks that are ineffective against SILC:
- Man-in-the-middle attacks are ineffective if proper public key
infrastructure is used, and if all public keys are always verified.
- IP spoofing is ineffective (because of encryption and trusted keys).
- Attacks that change the contents of the data or add extra data to
the packets are ineffective (because of encryption and integrity
checks).
- Passive attacks (listenning network traffic) are ineffective
(because of encryption). Everything is encrypted including
authentication data such as passwords when they are needed.
- Any sort of cryptanalytic attacks are tried to make ineffective by
using the best cryptographic algorithms out there, and by designing
the protocol to guard against them.
Q: Does SILC support instant messaging?
A: Officially SILC is not an instant message (IM) system as people
usually understands it. However, SILC supports many of the features
that are found in traditional IM systems. SILC can be implemented in
either IRC-style or IM-style system. Features that are usually found
only in IM systems, such as multiple presence settings, persistent
sessions etc. are also found in SILC.
Q: Why SILC does not have LINKS command like in IRC?
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.
Q: What does the session detaching/resuming mean?
A: The new SILC protocol supports a feature called session detachment.
This means that client can detach from the server by giving a DETACH
command, but still remain as valid user in the network. The connection
is lost to the server but the user remains in the network. User can
then resume the session back next time it connects a server in the
network, and be like he was never gone.
This feature clearly could be used in many cases. For example, if you
want to upgrade your current SILC client, you do not have to quit the
network anymore. You just give DETACH command and still remain in the
network. Then you upgrade your client and reconnect to the server and
continue business as is. If somebody gives WHOIS command to your
nickname he will see that you are detached. Messages that are sent to
you when you are detached are dropped by the server. Nice thing about
this feature is also that you can resume the session from any server
in the network; you do not have to reconnect to the same server you
originally were connected to.
Q: Is anyone outside a channel able to see the channel messages?
A: A short answer is simply No. A longer answer involves assumptions
about security conditions. Initially channel keys are generated by the
server, so if the server would get compromised it would be possible
for an adversary to see the messages. However, users on the channel
can prevent this even if the server would be compromised. It is
possible to set so called channel private key that only the users on
the channel know about. The servers does not know about the key, and
therefore cannot see the messages even if they would be compromised.
So, longer answer results into same as the short one; No.
Q: How can I register my channel in SILC?
A: There is not a channel registering service in SILC. However, SILC
does support permanent channels. When you join a non-existing channel
for the first time you will become the founder of the channel. You can
then set a special founder mode on the channel which makes the channel
permanent. When the last user leaves the channel when this mode is
set, the channel will not be destroyed. If the founder mode is not
set, then empty channels will be destroyed automatically. When the
founder mode is set and you leave the channel you can also reclaim the
founder rights back on the channel next time you join it. (see also Q:
What does the founder mode on channel mean, and how do I set it? and
Q: I am founder of invite only channel, how can I join the channel
after I have left it?). You can call this channel registering if you
want.
Q: Is it true that all messages are encrypted in SILC?
A: Most definitely yes. The SILC protocol makes it impossible to send
unencrypted messages or packets to the SILC network. All messages are
always encrypted, either using session keys, or other secret keys such
as channel keys or private message keys.
Q: Can server or SILC operator gain operator mode on a channel?
A: They cannot get operator status, founder status, join invite only
channels, escape active bans, escape user limits or anything alike,
without explicitly being allowed. Only way to get channel operator
status is that someone ops him. Server and SILC operators in the
network are normal users with the extra privileges of being able to
adminstrate their server. They cannot do anything more than a normal
user.
Q: Channel name doesn't have #-character or does it?
A: The #-character is not mandatory part of channel name, like it is
in IRC. This means that giving the command /JOIN #silc and /JOIN silc
will join to different channels. This is intentional since the
#-character clearly is IRC feature and has nothing to do with SILC. If
you want it to have the character then just join to the channel with
#-character in the name.
Q: Does SILC support moderated channels?
A: Yes. Channel founder can moderate both normal users and channel
operators so that they cannot talk on the channel. It is also possible
to quiet one specific user on the channel if needed.
Q: What does the "watching" mean?
A: You can set a "watch" list for yourself in the server. This means
that you can watch for certain nicknames in the network. For example,
if you add a nickname "foo" to the watch list you will be notified
when the foo logins to the network, leaves the network, changes its
user mode or changes its nickname. This way you can watch for example
when does you friend login to the network.
Q: Is it possible to reject watching?
A: Yes. Since it is clear that not everyone wants to be spied on you
can set a mode for yourself which rejects watching you. Even if
someone is watching the nickname you have, your logins, logoffs, mode
changes or nickname changes will not be notified to the watcher.
Q: Is it possible to block private messages?
A: Yes. You can block incoming private messages by setting a mode that
prevents unwanted private messages. Only the private messages that are
secured with a private message key are delivered to you. This implies
that you have negotiated the private key with the sender of the
message, and therefore want to receive messages from that user. Other
private messages that are secured with normal session keys are dropped
when the mode is set.
Q: Is it possible to block channel messages?
A: Yes it is. By setting a mode that accomplishes this you can prevent
the server of sending any channel messages to you. There is also a
mode that allows blocking channel messages from normal users. This
means that you will receive channel messages only when it is sent by
channel operator or channel founder. It is also possible to block
channel messages sent by robots. A user on the channel can have a
robot mode set (which means that the user is actually a robot
program), and messages sent from that user can be blocked with the
mode.
Q: Is it possible to block invites?
A: It sure is. You can set a mode that prevents the server of sending
invite notifications to you. This can for example prevent invite
flooding. The downside is that it may make joining to a invite only
channels a bit harder.
Q: Does SILC support multimedia messages, like video/audio streaming?
A: Yes it does. The new version of the protocol supports sending of
MIME objects as messages. Since MIME objects can easily represent any
kind of data, such as video stream, audio stream, images, etc. it is
easy to send these multimedia messages in SILC. It also makes video
conferencing possible with SILC. It can work by sending the stream(s)
to a channel and everybody who joins the channel can receive the
stream. This feature in the protocol surely makes possible many kind
of multimedia applications in the future.
Q: What kind of presence modes SILC support?
A: By presence we mean indication of presence in the network, and SILC
supports several different kinds of presence modes. They can be
changed with the UMODE command which changes your user mode in the
network. Currently there is the following modes for presence: GONE
(I'm away), INDISPOSED (I cannot be here), BUSY (I'm busy, don't
bother me), PAGE (page me if you want to talk), and HYPER (I'm hyper
active, talk to me). When mode is not set it means you are present in
the network. There are many other user modes as well, but they are not
directly related to presence indication.
Q: Does SILC support anonymity?
A: The protocol has a user mode which indicates that user is anonymous
user. The user cannot set or unset the mode itself, but a server which
provides these anonymous chatting services can set the mode for the
user that connects to the server. User that has the mode set has their
username and hostname information scrambled. There are other ways of
making anonymity in SILC but they all are implementational methods,
and protocol does not handle those methods.
Q: Does SILC support services?
A: Yes it does. There is command called SERVICE which can be used by
clients and servers to negotiate a service agreement with a remote
server. The protocol does not however define any services currently.
Q: I have suggestions to SILC Protocol, what can I do?
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. You might want to checkout the TODO
list from the CVS as well.
3. Client Questions
Q: Where can I find SILC clients?
A: The official SILC client is available for free download from the
silcnet.org web page. There is also several independent projects
working with the SILC Toolkit to come up with various other clients.
Bombyx is a cross-platform GUI client written with FLTK. Milc is also
a cross-platform GUI client written with WxWindows. See also our links
page for links to other clients.
Q: Can I use SILC with IRC client and vice versa?
A: Generally the answer would be no for both. However, there exist
already at least one IRC client that supports SILC, the Irssi client.
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. You can use SILC plug-in in Irssi and have support for
both protocols in one client. But, this does not mean that you can
talk from SILC network to IRC network, that is not possible.
Q: The default theme sucks, where can I find a better one?
A: The Irssi SILC client's theme files are almost 100% compatible with
the original Irssi IRC client's themes. You can get those theme files
from the Irssi project website. You can also try to make a better
theme by yourself.
Q: How do I send a private message?
A: Sending private message is done by using the MSG command. For
example, command: /MSG john hello, will send a `hello' message to a
nickname `john'. By default private messages are secured with session
keys, and the message is re-encrypted by the servers when the message
travels to the receiver. If you would like to secure the private
messages with a private key, you can negotiate a secret key with the
receiver. Always remember to give WHOIS command before sending a
private message to assure that you are sending the message to correct
person.
Q: How do I negotiate secret key with another user?
A: It is important to negotiate secret keys if you cannot trust the
servers and the network you are using. By negotiating a key with the
user you want to talk to assures that no one except you and your
friend is able to encrypt and decrypt the messages. The secret key
negotiation is done with the KEY command. Here is an example of how to
negotiate keys for securing private messages.
By giving command: /KEY MSG john agreement 192.168.2.100, you will
send a key negotiation request to a nickname `john'. The 192.168.2.100
IP address would be your machine's IP address. You can also define an
port to the KEY command after the IP address. If you do not do that
the operating system will bind to a port of its choosing. John will
receive a notification on the screen that you would like to negotiate
secret keys with him, and he will receive the IP address and port
where you are listenning for the negotiation. When he gives command:
/KEY MSG You negotiate 192.168.2.100 31382, the key negotiation is
started. During the key negotiation you will be prompted on the screen
to verify and accept John's public key if you do not have his public
key already. The John will be prompted to accept your public key as
well. After the key negotiation is over all private messages sent
between you and John are secured with the negotiated secret key. Note
that you must verify the public key you are prompted for, and this is
very important since someone could be doing man-in-the-middle attack.
Q: How do I negotiate secret keys behind a NAT?
A: If only you are behind a NAT, or firewall then key negotiation
works, but if both you and your friend are behind a NAT then key
negotiation will not work, since it is done peer to peer. If you are
behind a NAT then you obviously cannot receive key negotiations, and
cannot bind to any IP address and port. However, you can still use KEY
command to negotiate the keys.
By giving command: /KEY MSG john agreement, without any other
arguments (such as IP address and port) you will send a negotiation
request to John, but do not provide an address and port for the John
to connect to. When John receives the notification on the screen that
you would like to perform key negotiation, he can give command: /KEY
MSG You agreement 172.16.100.78, which will send key negotiation
request back to you. You will receive the IP address and port where
you need to connect in order to perform the negotiation. After
receiving the notification you can give command: /KEY MSG john
negotiate 172.16.100.78 31181, which will start the key negotiation
with John. This way you can negotiate the keys if you are behind a
NAT.
Q: How do I change channel modes?
A: The command to manage channel modes is CMODE. With this command you
can change the channel status (to change it to secret channel for
example), set user limit on the channel, passphrase for the channel,
set the channel to use private keys on channel, and set the founder
mode.
Q: What does the founder mode on channel mean, and how do I set it?
A: Who ever creates the channel by being the first user to join the
channel becomes automatically the founder of the channel. Founder has
some extra privileges on the channel. For example, it is not possible
to kick the founder off the channel, and there are some channel modes
that only the founder of the channel can change. If the creator of the
channel wishes to preserve the channel founder mode even if he leave
the channel he can set the founder mode for the channel.
The mode is set by giving command: /CMODE #channel +f. This will set
the founder mode and will use the public key of the founder as
authenticator when the user is reclaiming the mode back. If the
founder leaves the channel he will be able to get the founder mode
back by using JOIN or CUMODE commmands. Giving command /JOIN #channel
-founder, will get the founder mode back at the same time he joins the
channel, or giving commmand /CUMODE #channel +f yournick, will also
give the founder mode back on the channel after he has joined the
channel.
The founder mode also means that the channel becomes permanent when it
is set. This means that when the last client leaves the channel the
channel is not destroyed when the founder mode is set. Next time
someone joins the channel he will not become the founder of the
channel if the channel already existed (but were empty). If the
founder mode is not set when last user leaves the channel, the channel
will be destroyed. When you set the mode for the channel and leave the
channel you can reclaim the founder rights to yourself back at any
time when you rejoin the channel.
Q: I am founder of invite only channel, how can I join the channel
after I have left it?
A: Founder can override the invite only status by reclaiming the
founder status on the channel using the JOIN command. The channel must
have the founder mode set in order for it to work. Reclaiming founder
status using JOIN command is important also if the channel has user
limit set, and has active bans. Founder can override these conditions
as well. However, founder cannot override the passphrase of the
channel if it is set. To get the founder mode during JOIN and to
override the invite only condition, give command: /JOIN #channel
-founder. This will join the channel and attempt to reclaim the
founder status back to you.
Q: How can I op or deop somebody on channel?
A: Giving operator status, or removing the operator status on a
channel requires you to have at least operator status, or founder
status on the channel. You can give operator status to another user by
using CUMODE command. To give ops give the command: /CUMODE #channel
+o john, and to remove ops give command: /CUMODE #channel -o john. To
indicate current channel you can also use `*' character in #channel's
stead.
Q: How do I set private key for channel, and what does that mean
exactly?
A: Setting private key for channel requires first to set the private
key mode for the channel. You need to be the founder of the channel to
be able to do this. Give the command: /CMODE #channel +k. After this
mode is set the old channel key will not be used to encrypt and
decrypt channel messages. To set the key for the channel use the KEY
command. Every user on the channel must do the same thing and set the
same key. If some user on the channel does not set the key (or does
not know the key) he won't be able to see any messages on the channel.
Give the command: /KEY CHANNEL #channel set verysecretkey. This
command will set the `verysecretkey' passphrase as key to #channel.
How exactly other users will know this key is out of scope of the SILC
protocol. SILC does not provide yet a possibility of negotiating
secret key with many users at the same time. For this reason the
secret key on the channel is usually a passphrase or a password that
all users on the channel have to know. Setting a private key for
channel means that only the users on the channel who know the key is
able to encrypt and decrypt messages. Servers do not know the key at
all. If you remove the private key mode from the channel, all users
will start automatically using a new channel key to secure channel
messages.
Q: How do I transfer a file?
A: You can transfer files securely using the FILE command. This
command will automatically negotiate secret key with the remote user
and the file transfer stream is secured using that key. The file
transfer stream is always sent peer to peer. If you would like to send
a file to another user you can give command: /FILE SEND
path/to/the/file john. This command sends, or actually makes the
`path/to/the/file' available for download for the user `john'. The
John will decide whether he wants to actually download the file. When
John gives the command: /FILE RECEIVE, the key negotiation is started.
You and John will be prompted to verify and accept each other's public
key if you do not have it cached already. After key negotiation is
over the file transfer process starts. If you want to cancel the file
transfer session, or if John wants to reject the file transfer
request, giving the command: /FILE CLOSE will close the session.
Q: How can I get other users public keys?
A: You can get a user's public key using the GETKEY command. This
command will fetch the user's public key from the server where the
user has connected to. The server has verified that the user posesses
the corresponding private key, however, you will be prompted to verify
and accept the public key. All client public keys are saved in your
local key directory in ~/.silc/clientkeys/. You can also receive
clients public keys during key negotiation and file transfers. The
GETKEY command can be used to fetch a server's public key as well.
Those keys are saved in ~/.silc/serverkeys/ directory.
Q: How can I see the fingerprint of my public key?
A: You can check out your own fingerprint by giving just WHOIS command
without any arguments. Additionally you can also dump the contents of
the key file using the silc program and giving -S option to it. Your
own public key is always saved in ~/.silc/public_key.pub file. To dump
your key run silc as: silc -S .silc/public_key.pub. The same way you
can dump the contents of any public key inside ~/.silc/clientkeys/ and
~/.silc/serverkeys/ directories. The WHOIS command will also show
other users public key fingerprints.
Q: I gave WHOIS to a nick, and it returned multiple replies, why?
A: This will happen if there are several same nicknames in the network
at the same time. As you may already know nicknames are not unique in
SILC network. This means there can be multiple same nicknames. This
also means that you can always have the nickname you want. If WHOIS
returns multiple replies, you can distinguish the users by their
realname, username, hostname and ultimately by the fingerprint of
their public key, which the WHOIS will also show. You will also notice
an additional nickname inside a parenthesis. It may show for example:
nickname: John (John@otaku). The real nickname is `John', but since
there are many John's in the network you can access this one using
`John@otaku'. So, if you were to send private message to this
particular John you can do it by giving command: /MSG John@otaku
hello. This will send `hello' message to the John@otaku.
Q: Is there a command to see all linked servers?
A: No there is not. For longer answer see also this FAQ.
Q: How do I list the users of a channel?
A: The command to list all users on a particular channel is USERS. It
is also aliased to WHO command in Irssi SILC Client. To see the users
of the current channel give the command: /USERS *. You can replace the
`*' with the channel name of your choosing. If the channel is private
or secret channel, and you have not joined the channel, you cannot
list the users of that channel.
Q: What is the difference between OPER and SILCOPER commands?
A: The OPER command is used to gain server operator privileges on
normal SILC server, while SILCOPER is used to gain router operator
(also known as SILC operator) privileges on router server. You cannot
use SILCOPER command on normal SILC server, it works only on router
server.
Q: My Cygwin client crashes with message "Couldn't create //.silc
directory"
A: A solutions should be setting HOME enviroment variable to the
directory where you have unpacked your SILC Client. Type to your
command prompt something like:
c:\>set HOME=c:\silc
Q: Why /join #silc and /join silc doesn't join the same channel?
A: The #-character is not mandatory part of channel name in SILC. So
#silc and silc are two different channels. The #-character in channel
name is IRC feature and has nothing to do with SILC. If you have
#-character in the channel name, then it is part of the channel name,
just like %-character, or &-character could be part of channel name.
Q: How do I detach my session from the server?
A: You can detach your session by simply giving DETACH command. Your
connection to the server will be closed automatically. Next time you
connect any server in the network your session will be automatically
resumed. If there is an error during session resuming your connection
will be closed and you need to reconnect to the server. In this case
the old sessionn cannot be resumed anymore.
4. Server Questions
Q: Where can I find SILC servers?
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.
Q: Can I run my own SILC server?
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.
Q: What is the difference between SILC server and SILC router?
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.
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.
Q: Why server says permission denied to write to a log file?
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.
Q: When I connect to my server it says "server does not support one of
your proposed ciphers", what is wrong?
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.
Q: Why SILC server runs on privileged port 706?
A: Ports 706/tcp and 706/udp have been assigned for the SILC protocol
by IANA. Server on the network listening above privileged ports
(>1023) SHOULD NOT be trusted as it could have been set up by
untrusted party. The server normally drops root privileges after
startup and then run as user previously defined in silcd.conf.
Q: I see [Unknown] in the log file, what does it mean?
A: You can see in the log file for example: [Info] Closing connection
192.168.78.139:3214 [Unknown]. The [Unknown] means that the connection
was not authenticated yet, and it is not known whether the connection
was a client, server or router. There will appear [Client], [Server]
or [Router] if the connection is authenticated at that point.
Q: How can I generate a new server key pair?
A: You can generate a new key pair using the silcd command with the -C
option. When SILC Server is installed a key pair is generated
automatically for you. However, it is suggested that you check the
information found in that key and generate a new key pair if the
information is incorrect. You can check the information of your public
key by giving command: silc -S file.pub.
If you want to generate a new key pair then you can give for example
command: silcd -C . --identifier="UN=silc-oper, HN=silc.silcnet.org,
RN=SILC Router Admin, E=silc-oper@silcnet.org, O=SILC Project, C=SK".
This will create the key pair to current directory, with the specified
identifier. Please, give the --help option to the silcd to see usage
help for the -C and --identifier options.
5. Toolkit Questions
Q: What is SILC Toolkit?
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.
Q: Is the SILC Toolkit Reference Manual Available?
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 documentation page.
Q: How do I compile the Toolkit on Unix?
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.
Q: How do I compile the Toolkit on Win32?
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.
Q: Does the Toolkit package include any sample code?
A: Yes, naturally. It includes sample codes for two different SILC
Client implementations, and SILC Server. The silcer/ directory
includes a simple GUI client based on GTK--, and Win32 samples are
included in the win32/ directory, for simple client.
