Disastry's Netscape PGP half-Plugin Page 

Janis Jagars (known to the PGP community as "Disastry") perished on October 31, 2002 while on vacation in Nepal. You can read an obituary by Len Sassaman here

As Disastry's original page (http://disastry.dhs.org/pgp/netscape.htm) has disappeared, I have put together this page in order to make available his Netscape PGP half-Plugin  v. 0.14, the last version that Disastry built. Where possible, I have also included links to the other files that were available from Disastry's  page (in some cases, unfortunately, I haven't been able to find alternate download locations for those files).

Those familiar with Disastry's page will notice that I have used much of his original HTML, but have stripped his PGP clear signature for the web page itself. Disastry's detached signatures for the download files are included within the .ZIP archives themselves. You can download Disastry's PGP keys as ASCII armored (.ASC) files here:

Key Type Key Size Key ID Key Fingerprint
DH/DSS 3072/1024 0x2E250C64 D46B 6DA8 23DD 0A92 6BE7 DE8E 305A 4D51 2E25 0C64
RSAv3 2040 0xED97BF3F 6F50 13F0 9C1F 5D43 BED6 0670 537B ECC5

You can also find Disastry's keys on the keyservers with a search

A few of Disastry's other pages are available from this web site:

If you know of places on the Net from which Disastry's other files can be downloaded, please feel free to contact me:

eburger68@myrealbox.com


Now there is another plugin made by Jerry Davis. It is better than mine - it can also decrypt and verify received messages and can automatically encript and sign messages. Get it at: http://bear-software.freeservers.com/

Netscape PGP half-Plugin *


Version 0.14

* half-Plugin, because it does only half of work - it can encrypt and sign but can not decrypt and verify.


How it works:
There is a Spell Checker in Netscape, Spell Checker is in separate dll file half-Plugin sits between Netscape and Spell Checker.

Installing:
1. Rename file ...\Netscape\spellchk\sp3240.dll to sp3240_.dll (do not move to another directory, half-Plugin will not be able to find it then)
2. Copy new sp3240.dll to ...\Netscape\spellchk
Using:
Write message, then click on the "Spell" button (or "Tools/Spell Check" menu item or press Ctrl-K), the "PGP Encrypt/Sign" and "Spell Check" selection box will appear, now choose "PGP Encrypt/Sign",

this will invoke window like a Spell Checker window, but it works differently,

now select "Sign", "Encrypt" or "Encrypt and Sign" and click on "Replace", or click on the "Stop" if you want to cancel.

If you want both you should Spell Check an Encrypt/Sign just click the "Spell" button twice. Of course you should Spell Check before Encrypt/Sign.

If Netscape "Edit/Preferences/Messages/Spell check messages before sending" setting is checked the selection box will appear after you press the "Send", but you can not both Spell Check an Encrypt/Sign this way so if you want both you should Spell Check before sending. Clicking on "Stop" will not cancel message sending - message will be sent in plain text.

If you can configure half-Plugin so that it starts Encrypt/Sign or Spell Check by default (do not shows selection box) by holding down Ctrl and Shift keys when clicking the "Spell" button (or "Tools/Spell Check" menu item) or with nsplgcfg.exe.

You can start Encrypt/Sign by holding down Ctrl key when clicking the "Spell" button (or "Tools/Spell Check" menu item) or Spell Check by holding down Ctrl key when clicking the "Spell" button (or "Tools/Spell Check" menu item)


Built With:
Visual C++ 6
PGP Source and SDK pgp651i-win-src.zip from ftp://ftp.pgpi.org
spellchk.h from http://lxr.mozilla.org
Tested with:
Netscape 4.7, 4.74, 4.75, 4.76
PGP 6.5.1i, 6.5.2 and 6.5.3
Windows NT 4 SP3 and Windows 95 and Windows 2000 Pro
(If you are using it on another OS or with another Netscape and PGP versions, let me know, so I can list it here.)
Known problems:
* does not work on Windows 98
* it does not encrypt attachments
* it can not encrypt/sign messages bigger than 100 kb
* it is not thread safe, use only one at time
* hangs Netscape Composer, do not use PGP with Composer
Download (with source):
nspgplg014.zip 62kb
nspgplg013.zip 61kb
History
27.01.00 I got idea that its possible to use Spell Check interface for PGP
28.01.00 version 0.1 released after 2 days of work
31.01.00 version 0.11 small bug fixed which may cause plaintext to be sent if "Edit/Preferences/Messages/Spell check messages before sending"
02.02.00 version 0.12 added possibility to skip PGP/Spell selection dialog and go directly to PGP, added configuration tool: nsplgcfg.exe to enable or disable this feature
03.02.00 version 0.13 improved possibility to skip PGP/Spell selection box and go directly to PGP (by holding Ctrl down) or Spell Check (by holding Shift down), removed nsplgcfg.exe (replaced by Internal Configuration dialog, invoked by holding Ctrl and Shift down), solved problem that caused Netscape Composer to hang
15.02.00 version 0.14 conventional encryption added, Comment string added
Disastry
http://disastry.dhs.org/
http://i.am/disastry

My PGP keys:
2040 bit RSA key
3072 bit DH/DSS key (only for PGP 5.0+ and GnuPG users)


 since 30.11.00 (note: updated & revised 26.03.03)