Michael wrote:

On Wednesday 2 October 2024 14:10:39 BST Dale wrote:

I just want to switch from Gmail.  I don't really need encryption
stuff.  I wouldn't mind doing my own but I have no clue where to even
start on that. 

Dale

:-)  :-)

Some links for your consideration:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Simple_mail_server_with_webmail

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Complete_Virtual_Mail_Server

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Category:Mail_Servers

https://forwardemail.net/en/blog/open-source/gentoo-linux-email-server

There's also mailinabox and similar on premises binary solutions:

https://github.com/mail-in-a-box/mailinabox

HOWEVER, setting up the mail server itself is the easy part.  Getting it 
working along with reverse DNS, Let's Encrypt TLS certificates, SPF/DKIM/
DMARC/DNSSEC-DANE without your domain being blacklisted at the drop of a hat, 
while you're fighting permanently against spam and intruders can soon become a 
full time occupation.  All this assumes your domestic ISP allows their 
domestic customers to run mail servers - many don't/won't.

I don't mean to discourage you, it is an interesting project to get into and 
you'll have the benefit of controlling your own server, your own data, without 
paying some Internet provider with either your data privacy, or your money.  
With low power NUC devices or a Raspberry Pi, you could run your own server at 
less cost than most hosting companies will charge you, even if you allow for 
some hardware redundancy, backups and hot/cold standby.

Alternatively, if you can find a locally owned and run ISP with motivated 
staff, it may be a good half-way compromise between Big-Tech and on-premises 
mail hosting.  Note though, a lot of smaller shops are just a front-end 
marketing effort, with outsourced back end operations run by the Big Tech.

Well, I'm not really wanting to do my own email server. In a way, I'd like to have it so that everything is fetched, stored on my system and then I can use any email software I want, Seamonkey, Thunderbird, Mutt, Kmail or whatever, without losing a single email. Thing is, even that sounds like more than I care to chew on. If someone would share configs, editing private info of course, and I could just drop those in and edit with my private info, I might consider it. Thing is, I'm nervous about doing even that. Be my luck, I'd screw up something and delete every email I've ever got. :/ It would be nice tho to have a program fetch my emails and then I can switch email software anytime without losing anything at all.

What I'm looking for is like a paid version of Gmail or Yahoo but is private. They don't snoop, even for internal purposes like ads. I'd also like it to be in a country that tells certain other snoopers to go pound sand. From my understanding, some countries won't share info no matter what. I think Proton is one of those. Since everything is encrypted, even if they did share it, it's encrypted. I think LastPass and Bitwarden are set up the same way. They can't access a users passwords because it is encrypted before they get it. Even if they get some legal order to share, it won't do them any good, unless someone set a stupid password that can be easily guessed.

It sounds like Proton is encrypted end to end. I don't *really* need that much security, my biggest amount of emails is mostly this mailing list which is public anyway. Still, it is based in a country that has serious privacy laws and they can't read it even if they wanted too. It's also not very expensive. It's a little bit of overkill for what I need but . . . . I also noticed they have a VPN service. I just renewed my Surfshark a couple weeks ago for another two years. Once that is up tho, I could switch my VPN to them and have one place doing VPN and email. Then you add in the software is in the Gentoo tree and ready to install, dang, this just sounds good.

I'm open to ideas. There may be something better than Proton. Still, it sounds good. Price isn't bad either. I think I could even back up my cell phone to it as well with a paid plan. I might even be able to set it up without messing up something. ROFL

Dale

:-) :-)