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9.2: Key Servers

Key servers are machines with a publicly accessible interface to an enormous global public keyring. Anyone may add keys to or query this keyring. Each key server holds a complete copy of the global keyring, and they arrange to keep one another informed of additions they receive.

This means you can tell any key server to add your public key to the global keyring, and all of the other servers will know about it within a day or so. Then anyone will be able to query any key server to obtain your public key.

To add your key to the keyservers, send an Email message to pgp-public-keys@pgp.ai.mit.edu with a subject line of `ADD' and a body containing your public key block. With Mailcrypt installed, you can just type C-c / x to insert your public key block (see Inserting Keys) into the body of the message.

For help with the Email interface to the key servers, send a message with a subject line of `HELP'. For a World Wide Web interface to the key servers, see Brian LaMacchia's home page at `http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~bal/'.

Some other key servers include:

For a complete list, consult any good online repository of PGP information (see Online Resources).

It is strongly recommended that you submit your key to the key servers, since many humans and programs (including Mailcrypt) may look for it there. Besides, it takes mere seconds and the pain passes quickly.

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