bleep — the email helper you don’t install

This is a program for Windows 2000/XP that will help you get around email restrictions in a "Net Nazi" situation.

For example, an office manager needs to receive an MPEG file from a vendor. However, her company email system disallows MPEG files as attachments, so their email bounces. Meanwhile, she can't install any software on the office machine, since it is locked down.

So, the office manager asks the vendor to run the file through bleep first, and email that. The cloaked file gets past any censor because it is impossible to determine what the file really is! Upon receiving the file, she runs bleep directly off a business-card-sized CD-R, without having to "install" it onto that computer. The file is now readable

Features

Runs Without Installing

A single file, bleep.exe, runs directly from a CD, USB drive, or whatever. There is no need to "install" it on the PC, and no settings or configuration of the PC is affected.

If you do choose to install it, it will remember your last settings and provide shell integration.

Cloaks Contents of Files

bleep works by encrypting the file. You have to give it a password, but for this purpose the password can be simple. Now a censor or filter program that works by disallowing certain file types will not be able to tell what your file really is. It can't even tell that it's a bleep file, so the censor cannot be programmed specifically to reject those!

But, it's still safe. An arriving file, that got past the filter, cannot be run or opened until it is decrypted with the correct password.

Chops Up Large Files

Another problem with email is sending files that are too large. bleep will chop up a file into smaller files of a specified size. So, for example, a 5 megabyte file can be emailed to someone with a 1 megabyte email size limit by chopping it into 5 1-meg files (or into six 833K files, just to be safe).

Licencing

You can download and trybleep for free with no restrictions or limitations on the program. If you find it useful in a business situation, donate $5 anually to one of the charities I support.

...will have details and links ...

Technical Details

... move this to another page after initial discussions ...

MinGW, single-file EXE, AES, no header or signature

Download

Working Notes

Write this correctly (gcc) and you won't have to worry about cross-platform users. Recompile on the target system and it could pretty well run, especially with a good compression library. —TonyK