You've heard of problems with ICQ and other text chat programs being "insecure"? Well, look no further for a solution! BetweenUs allows you more in the way of encryption than a team of government spooks.

BetweenUs is a relatively easy to use text chat program that can support up to 25 users at a time. (There's a version for WinNT that supports up to 100 simultaneous users.) It eliminates the fear of having another person on the network snag your communications by encrypting the text.

When installed, each copy of the application acts as both client and server.

BetweenUs offers symmetric encryption algorithms-- CAST-128 (128 bit), TripleDES (168 bit), Blowfish (448 bit)-- as well as PGP compatible encryption (public algorithm Diffie-Hellman 3072 bit).

Starting up a chat is simple-- go into the "Settings" menu, enter "Session Profile", choose a nickname and encryption type, and connect to directory service. From there, you can select a user for chat and connect by clicking "call". Each user must be using the same encryption type to initiate a chat session. However, each user can choose which encryption algorithm you wish to utilize.

If you're using PGP compatible encryption, you can choose from one of three public keyservers to check.

You can also integrate BetweenUs into ICQ-- how's that for cool?

BetweenUs can also be used on your LAN, should you be looking for an encrypted private messaging program.

In addition, BetweenUs allows you to send and receive encrypted files.

Installation is a cinch. There's an online FAQ at the Tamos website, but just about everything you might want to know about the program is covered by the included Windows help file. You'll need to have PGP 5.52 or higher installed on your machine for PGP compatibility.

The GUI isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's functional and easy enough to follow.

BetweenUs is a 1.2MB download-- less than 10 minutes on a 33.6kbps connection. You can get a trial version of the software from the Tamos Software website (http://www.tamos.com/). It's apparently not subject to US export restrictions, since BetweenUs was developed outside of the USA. All download servers are also located outside of the USA.



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