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Barbara, I'm not a heavy heavy Internet user, but I do consider myself moderately familiar with it and it's culture (or lack thereof ;-) Re: anonymous mail for delicate subjects The anonymous mail server (probably the one you spoke of): anon.penet.fi has been around for some time, and is probably the most frequently used anonymous mail server on the Internet for posting anonymously. In this respect, it's fairly "respectable" and I would say it's pretty secure. If you used it to threaten the President of the US, I imagine that our Secret Service could legally or ethically force the list owner in Finland to hand over the pertinent files, but discussions of sex and Parkinsonism probably won't interest many folks except those in the discussion. Unlike sending mail to you, Barb, and having you strip out the headers, the attraction of using a real "anonymous mail server" might be that the anonymotization (is that a word?) is done automatically, so there's no one who actually sees the sender's name in conjunction with the message - it's stripped out automatically. In any case, for those interested, they can send a blank message to: [log in to unmask] You don't need to put any subject for the mail message either. Just a blank message to that address will get you all the information. You'll receive a message with anything you need to know to send mail anonymously. Sending mail anonymously is easy - you just send the message to the server in Finland and at the top of the message include the real address of who you want the message to go to in a special line that looks like: X-Anon-To: real.addressee.here For added protection, you can use a password to prevent others from sending mail as you, like if you step away from your computer. You'll also receive in the help message some good warnings about the security of email, as were your warnings, Barbara. Email is not secure. Email is not secure. Email is not secure. But neither is postal mail, nor anything else short of speaking to someone face to face. On the other hand, there aren't lots of folks out there with nothing better to do than spy on email, and those that do are pretty pathetic individuals anyway - I doubt they'll be looking for mail of Parkinson's folks just waiting to blackmail you. Keep things in perspective, but understand the inherent risks. Anyway, anonymous mail is available for those who might find that a more comfortable way of remaining fully anonymous. Just try not to threaten the President :-) -- garyZ