[arch-general] Suggestions for email for a paranoid Archer

[Krzysztof Warzecha]

I believe first question you need to answer is: what is your threat model?

Are you afraid of losing all your mails (backups)? Losing control over
your email address? What are you going to do if you can't login to
your mailbox tommorow? How much do you mind if someone else gain
access to your old mails? Computer criminalists, government, rouge
google admin, google scanning your emails content for targeted
advertising (privacy / security)? Are delays in delivering mail
acceptable? (there are more questions)

backups: getmail or imapsync and backup them like files
control over mail address: buy your own domain, setup on your own
server or something like google apps
privacy / security: computer criminalists: good unique password,
2-factor authentication, use only trusted devices, don't do anything
stupid
privacy / security: government and google: use gpg to encrypt / sign
your mails or setup your own server (with luks; remember, government
can just steal your server from datacenter and there is nothing you
can do about it)

I think your own domain + backups + google apps is pretty good setup.
Secure, reliable, cheap and you can switch to other hosting without
changing your email address. If you don't trust google or government
(well, you shouldn't :P) then setup your own email box.

2012/10/11 Menachem Moystoviz <moystovi at g.jct.ac.il>:
> Recently, my paranoia levels have been ratcheted up by reading about
> companies' treatment of their users, along with an increasing awareness
> of my powerlessness with respect to most content providers.
> I therefore curbed most online activity and have attempted to host those
> services I used on my own server, in most cases living without when
> I didn't succeed.
>
> Two months ago, I attempted to install postfix and dovecot on my Arch box
> in order to be able to host my own mail. Naively I thought that all I needed
> was the right software and a dynamic DNS address. In other words,
> I thought it would be as simple as setting up a web server.

Use cheap vps with static ip, it will be much easier. I doubt anyone
keeps their mail server in home with dynamic ip.

-- 
Krzysztof Warzecha