bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (benjamin wildasin) (09/28/89)
I recently started posting to Usenet and would like to know how I can go about changing the From: line in my header. If you know how to do this, please post or send me E-mail. Thanks in advance, Ben Wildasin *************************************************************************** * bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu * "Man swallows remote control... * ************************************ changes channels by * * silver::bwildasi * hiccuping" * ***************************************************************************
briang@bari.Sun.COM (Brian Gordon) (09/28/89)
In article <26716@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (benjamin wildasin) writes: >I recently started posting to Usenet and would like to know how I >can go about changing the From: line in my header. > >If you know how to do this, please post or send me E-mail. I presume your intentions are honorable, but your question is "How do I post a forged article to usenet?" One hopes that public answers are scarce ... +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Brian G. Gordon briang@Corp.Sun.COM (if you trust exotic mailers) | | ...!sun!bari!briang (if you route it yourself) | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
toto@tank.uchicago.edu (sandra jessica smyth) (09/28/89)
In article <26716@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (benjamin wildasin) writes:
:I recently started posting to Usenet and would like to know how I
:can go about changing the From: line in my header.
:
:If you know how to do this, please post or send me E-mail.
:
:Thanks in advance,
:Ben Wildasin
:
:***************************************************************************
:* bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu * "Man swallows remote control... *
:************************************ changes channels by *
:* silver::bwildasi * hiccuping" *
:***************************************************************************
Why would anyone want to do this?
(To be someone you are not?)
--
Sandra Jessica Smyth Believer in lost causes
toto@tank.uchicago.edupa1027@sdcc13.ucsd.EDU (John C. Fowler) (09/28/89)
In article <26716@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (benjamin wildasin) writes: >I recently started posting to Usenet and would like to know how I >can go about changing the From: line in my header. There are two legitimate reasons I can think of for changing your From: line. 1) You want people replying to your article to send mail to a different address than that from which you are posting. For this, rather than changing "From:", add or change the "Reply-To:" line with the address to which you want mail sent. Notice that my own "Reply-To" line above directs replies to the account from which I am sending this, but if, for some reason, I wanted replies to go to my MCI Mail address, I would substitute "0003513813@mcimail.com" for "pa1027@sdcc13.ucsd.edu". 2) You want to make your name look nicer, considering that it has only lowercase letters in it right now. The way to do this for all news readers is to change your /etc/passwd entry to properly reflect your name with capital letters. In Berkeley UNIX, use the chfn command. Otherwise, ask your system manager to change it for you. Or, check the documentation for your news reader -- you can probably change that portion of the "From:" line using the environmental variable NAME or by creating the file ".name" in your home directory. Note that neither 1 nor 2 will protect your identity. People can always remotely finger you or send mail to your postmaster. If you want to post something anonymously, send mail to one of those folks who offer "anonymous posting services" in their .signature. This keeps people from abusing the privilege. Personally, unless it's something really terrible, I recommend just posting it in your own name. Oh yes, there's also a way to forge net mail, but I'm not going to tell you how to do that. :-) -- New .signature designed to save net bandwidth: JohnCFowler MyViewsNotUCSDs
bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) (09/29/89)
In article <26716@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (benjamin wildasin) writes:
: I recently started posting to Usenet and would like to know how I
: can go about changing the From: line in my header.
:
: If you know how to do this, please post or send me E-mail.
You have not given us enough information to properly answer you. Are
you running rn? Readnews? What? You might also need to tell us other
things, but that would be the bare minimum.
Also, why do you want to do this? Some rude people have suggested
that the only reason for doing this is to forge messages, but
actually there are several good reasons why one might want to fiddle
with the headers.
Are you trying to correct a mistake the system is making in
generating the headers? Are you trying to change the headers so that
replies go to another address? If, for example, you are trying to do
the latter, adding a Reply-To: header makes more sense than changing
the From: line. Or maybe you have some other purpose?
(BTW, if your purpose really *is* forging messages, don't bother with
changing the From: line. Changing it will get a new header added to
your message, the Sender: line, and that will contain your real
address. Forgers have to be a bit more clever than that.)
---
Bill { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill
bill@twwells.comwcs) (09/30/89)
In article <5561@tank.uchicago.edu> toto@tank.uchicago.edu (sandra jessica smyth) writes: ]In article <26716@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (benjamin wildasin) writes: ] > how I can go about changing the From: line in my header. Just do it. If you're using a news reader like rn that lets you edit header lines, just change it. Otherwise, you really need to learn a more powerful newsreader. ] Why would anyone want to do this? (To be someone you are not?) The machine you post news from isn't always the machine you want your mail sent to. For instance, cbnewsh.att.com is one of a bunch of servers we use for news, but my mail goes to ho95c.att.com in New Jersey. (Yes, mail to cbnewsh!wcs will forward to me.) Another example is that many locations, especially universities, have clusters of diskless workstations shared by many people. Today you may have logged on to sun43.cslab.berzerkley.edu, but your real mail address is postoffice.berzerkley.edu. Or you may be borrowing someone else's account, because you don't have news access of your own, but you do have an email address. Or you may not like the (name) that comes from the password file - the way to change this is to set the variable NAME to what you want your real name to look like. sh: $ NAME="The Hunchback of Evans Hall" ; export NAME csh: % setenv NAME "Biff the Wonder Dog" Or, yes, you may be trying to forge an article about forged postings ... don't. We'll find you :-). -- # Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs # also found at 201-271-4712 tarpon.att.com!wcs Somerset 4C423 Corp. Park 3 # More Colombians die from American tobacco than Americans from Colombian coke.
jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) (10/01/89)
toto@tank.uchicago.edu (sandra jessica smyth) wrote: > bwildasi@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (benjamin wildasin) writes: >> I recently started posting to Usenet and would like to know how I >> can go about changing the From: line in my header. >> If you know how to do this, please post or send me E-mail. > Why would anyone want to do this? > (To be someone you are not?) One good reason for doing it would be because your system manager is an incompetent bozo who's set things up so the "From:" line is nonsense. There are lots of sites out there that have a ".edu.UUCP" suffix on this line; replies to articles from them will invariably bounce unless you spot it in time and edit the address. "Reply-To:" will kludge around this for the poster, though. -- Jack Campin * Computing Science Department, Glasgow University, 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, SCOTLAND. 041 339 8855 x6045 wk 041 556 1878 ho INTERNET: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk USENET: jack@glasgow.uucp JANET: jack@uk.ac.glasgow.cs PLINGnet: ...mcvax!ukc!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack
epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) (10/02/89)
In article <4395@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 ho95c.att.com!wcs) writes: >The machine you post news from isn't always the machine you want >your mail sent to. For instance, cbnewsh.att.com is one of a bunch >of servers we use for news, but my mail goes to ho95c.att.com in New Jersey. Hence the Reply-To: header. > Another example is >that many locations, especially universities, have clusters of diskless >workstations shared by many people. This is something for the news administrator; look at the GENERICFROM setting in netnews. > Or you may be borrowing someone else's >account In that case you really do want to change the From: line. -=EPS=-