

Newbie wants to exit Google apps set up email etc. - biglucy

debating if i&#x27;m crazy to think i can set up my own server &#x2F; email or should depend on outside service.  want privacy seems like it&#x27;s sketchy unless you set up your own server... thoughts?
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toomuchtodo
Pay Fastmail and get on with better things you have to do. It's about $40/year
to replace what Gmail does. Assuming your time is worth at least that, can you
manage your own email server for less than an hour a year?

[https://www.fastmail.com/signup/personal.html](https://www.fastmail.com/signup/personal.html)

~~~
touristtam
Where are the server located? Because of the main reason for quitting gmail
would certainly be server location vs reaching distance from NSA and Co. At
least for me.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Unfortunately in the US.

[http://blog.fastmail.com/2013/10/07/fastmails-servers-are-
in...](http://blog.fastmail.com/2013/10/07/fastmails-servers-are-in-the-us-
what-this-means-for-you/)

Note that just because your servers aren't in the US, doesn't mean they're out
of reach of the NSA's surveillance apparatus.

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brudgers
Since SMTP email is sent in plaintext by default, what people send you can
never be assumed to be private. Setting up your own server doesn't change
that. Also SMTP email is "best effort" which means that the route between
sender and receiver is arbitrary. This means that you can't control which
servers an email sent to you passes through. Setting up your own email server
doesn't change that.

As a sender, you can exert some control of these things, like encrypting your
communications but that only works if the person receiving the email is
willing to decrypt it. Setting up your own email server doesn't change that
either.

For other apps like word processors and spreadsheets, it is of course very
practical to set up these locally using FOSS or commercial alternatives. Once
you share them by email of course all email issues apply.

TANSTAAFL. Good luck.

~~~
biglucy
thank you for your percipient comments. encryption it is. what do you think of
lavaboom. i guess we have to wait for dark mail protocol

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NeutronBoy
In the last few years, for various reasons, I've been through Google Apps,
Zoho, back to Google Apps, Outlook.com, now Fastmail.

After 6 weeks I can say that Fastmail is by far the best and I'm sad I didn't
try them sooner. The only thing that's missing (IMO) is Exchange-compatible
push email (you can do push if you use their app, but if you want to use
another app it's POP or IMAP pull). The interface is lightening fast, as is
sending and receiving email, and their blog shows a great technical
understanding of their product (and it's based in my hometown so happy to
support local businesses!)

~~~
sjs382
I recently switched my business-related email away from Google Apps (I was
using domain aliases, which I felt was less-than-professional). I switched to
Zoho, and I've been happy so far, but I'm curious--what was it about Zoho that
you didn't like? Or what didn't Zoho have that you missed?

~~~
NeutronBoy
I can't recall exactly, but I wasn't impressed with their web interface, and I
think I was having long delays with push email to my phone. Also, it seemed
'heavy' \- I just wanted email and calendar.

(this would have been a few years ago though, so YMMV)

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mpnordland
Well, I went and made my own email server, and as of last week, I only depend
on google calendar, which in a month, that will be over too. I've run my own
email since last fall, and have had no problems. It's not that hard either. I
followed this tutorial: [http://sealedabstract.com/code/nsa-proof-your-e-mail-
in-2-ho...](http://sealedabstract.com/code/nsa-proof-your-e-mail-in-2-hours/)

------
getdavidhiggins
Have a read: [http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-
bec...](http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/google-has-most-of-my-email-because-it-
has-all-of-yours)

As with all homebrew things, it is possible. The only caveat is the time spent
hardening the server, and time is always against us, my friend.

~~~
wishiknew
On the other hand, if nobody's ever leaving Google, Google will sure keep its
access to almost everybody's mail. And I don't agree with the time argument. I
ordered a VPS a few weeks ago (mainly to host my websites) and it didn't take
me more than ten minutes to create an email account through a web interface.
And with Roundcube, I don't have to deal with Google deciding it suddenly
wants to organize my mail in "tabs" or revamp the UI to the latest design
trend.

~~~
getdavidhiggins
I don't mean installing the software, I mean hardening the box so it's not a
sitting duck. It takes time. Sure, there are fire-and-forget ways to setup
mail software like Roundcube, but I am referring to VPSes themselves. There
are innumerable things that can go wrong. I will outline a two of the most
(usually overlooked) ones:

Origin Shield: You don't want the raw IP of a box anywhere near the public
Internet. Attackers can scan for IPs if they want an IP, but they should never
have to simply ping a server and its IP is in plain sight.

Auto-update: The box should respond to the current threat landscape. There was
a massive uptick in sysadmins logging into old and forgotten boxes when
Heartbleed came out. You want to be able to auto-patch and very rarely (if
ever) SSH into a box.

Those are just _two_ of the things I've learned the hard way recently, and
yeah; they're probably obvious low hanging fruit stuff. But the list goes
on...

~~~
wishiknew
Have you been hacked? Mind sharing some more details? I might be in a
honeymoon period with my VPS right now, sure. But Google has shut down Gmail
accounts for no reason, too. There are always going to be risks on both sides.

