> When I want to send a message from one of my aliases to a new
> correspondent, you provide a properly encoded address, but always with
> an expiration date about 3 weeks hence. Is this the date when the
> address turns into a pumpkin if I never use it?
Yes, whether or not you use it.
> Or does it turn into a
> pumpkin even if this correspondent and I commence a lively
> correspondence?
Each reply from your correspondent uses a brand new pumpkin, er,
encoded address so that a lively correspondence can go on
indefinitely.
What about a correspondent who exchanges a few
> messages with me but then goes dormant for a year? Can either of us
> resume the correspondence with the previous address?
Your correspondent never uses an encoded address, only the alias, so
it is not issue for them. If you tried to reply using an old encoded
address, the mail bounces back to you and you can generate a new
encoded address at the website.
The encoded address is loosely based on SPF+SRS (see
http://www.openspf.org/SRS). The address can be used by anyone who
gets possession of it to relay mail through E4ward.com to your
correspondent as if it came from you. The expiration date is supposed
to limit abuse and the hash value is to prevent the address from being
tampered with. In practice we have never seen them abused, so that may
warrant extending the expiration.
|
