View Source: KeyServer - Waikato Linux Users Group

Edit PageHistory Diff Info LikePages
Key servers are repositories of keys in public key systems, they are necessary infrastructure for the widespread and easy use of systems such as [PGP] and [GnuPG]. Normally [KeyServer]s are publically accessible, allowing for querying, retrieval and long-term archiving of public keys.


!! Keyservers for [OpenPGP]

(OpenPGP is the standard that [GPG] and [PGP] adhere to).

If you're new to [GPG], and wondering what you're supposed to do with your newly created key, here are some key servers you can upload and receive keys to/from.

Use a command like
   gpg --keyserver <some.key.server> ...
Or even better, add a line to your $HOME/.gnupg/options file like:
  keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net
(In recent versions of [GPG] -- such as 1.2.1 or later -- the options file has been renamed to gpg.conf)

There are many lists of publically accessible key servers, but many of the are very out-of-date. At the time of writing http://keyserver.kjsl.com/~jharris/keyserver.html was a good, current list.


!"main" key server network

Most OpenPGP keyservers are part of a global network that synchronises slowly.  You can see the full synchronisation map here:
* http://www.pramberger.at/peter/services/keyserver/network/

The only NZ based OpenPGP keyserver is at:
* http://pgp.net.nz  (info pages)
* http://pgp.net.nz:11371  (web interface)

Other servers that synchronise with each other are:
* everything at http://www.au.pgp.net/pgpnet/ftp-key.html
* http://wwwkeys.pgp.net (this uses round-robin [DNS])
* http://wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net (a subset of the above)
* the.earth.li (aka wwwkeys.uk.pgp.net)

* http://www.pgpkeys.net (I think this is part of the above network...?)

* Currently random.sks.keyserver.penguin.de seems to be the best address to use. This is a set of SKS (RFC:2440, RFC:2440bis and http://www.nongnu.org/sks/) compatible keyservers advertised using [RoundRobinDNS]. They are well synchronised and support advanced features such as photo uids.

!"Other" key servers
These servers (apparently?) don't synchronise with the above.

* www.mandrakesecure.net
* keyserver.net

----
Part of CategoryCryptography
9 pages link to KeyServer:
Last edited on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 7:21:32 pm by "JayDaley"
Edit PageHistory Diff Info LikePages