Looking for a hosting provider
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I've seen there were a few topics about similar issues. However, they seem to be inactive, so I decided to create a new one.
I have tons of mailboxes hosted by Great G company. I decided that I would like to move from them and have mailboxes in my own domain. In order to do that, I need to pick a hosting provider. The issue is that I'm not experienced enough to configure a VPS on my own in a way that would make it a secure e-mail server.
Given that I'm pretty much stuck with shared hostings.
I found a hosting provider with reasonable prices and great quality service, unfortunately servers do not run free software. I'm wondering whether I should look for a hosting provider that runs explicitly on free software OR use the one I found and just make sure to not use their webmail.
Based on https://www.fsf.org/resources/webmail-systems, it seems that the author is not really concerned (or at least it's not his main concern) about the nature (free OR non-free) of software that is run on the server itself.
What is your point of view? What would you do?
I am a member!
If it's just their webmail that's non-free, and you can choose your own operating system for the VPS, I'd say there isn't really a problem so long as you avoid the webmail and setup a separate email server yourself.
Do you need webmail, or is it enough to have POP3/IMAP access to your mailboxes and access them through an email client?
Since you're running your software on somebody else's computer, it's debatable whether the four freedoms really apply, anyway. Your system is compromised no matter what you do.
If you are asking about the provider I found, I'm thinking about taking their shared hosting service, not VPS. It means I will not be able to choose an operating system. I think their servers run "CloudLinux".
I am not going to use a webmail, so having to use an e-mail client is something that I would do anyway.
I found a hosting provider with reasonable prices and great quality service, unfortunately servers do not run free software. I'm wondering whether I should look for a hosting provider that runs explicitly on free software OR use the one I found and just make sure to not use their webmail.
What other people's run on their computers is none of your business. It is sad for them if they run software that do not respect their freedoms. That does not affect your use of their services though.
I agree.
There is this strange trend going on that people are seeking for mail providers that "run free software" for the sake of privacy. That makes no sense whatsoever- if the server runs free software, that's good *for the owner of the server* and not for the user.
When it comes to our privacy, it's completely irrelevant.
> Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 at 7:15 PM
> From: name at domain
> To: name at domain
> Subject: Re: [Trisquel-users] Looking for a hosting provider
> I agree.
> There is this strange trend going on that people are seeking for mail
> providers that "run free software" for the sake of privacy. That makes no
> sense whatsoever- if the server runs free software, that's good *for the
> owner of the server* and not for the user.
> When it comes to our privacy, it's completely irrelevant.
I wouldn't call it irrelevant.
I can trust a provider when I can know the software they use, see the code.
Especially if I know they support ethics important to me (freedom, openness in development, privacy for users).
I do NOT trust a provider who keeps this things secret from me or shows no ethics.
taz
You will never know whether this provider is really running the software he claims to run.
Even if he did, maybe he makes a copy of your mailbox every now and then?
That's perfectly possible because he has physical access to the server.
Once you send data to a server, you're giving away control over it. Free software can't help in this case anymore, that's why there exists the issue of "Service as a Software Substitute", SaaSS. See: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html
QUOTE
I agree.
There is this strange trend going on that people are seeking for mail providers that "run free software" for the sake of privacy. That makes no sense whatsoever- if the server runs free software, that's good *for the owner of the server* and not for the user.
When it comes to our privacy, it's completely irrelevant.
END QUOTE
Just to make it clear, my question has nothing to do with privacy issues. I will encrypt messages on my own anyway.
I am a member!
In that case, it's not really important what the provider runs.
As others have said, once you turn over control of your data, you're at their mercy whether they run free software or not.
It's a shame the "Freedombox" being developed by Eben Moglen and some Debian people never took off. That was supposed to be a totally free OS running on a little low-power "plug" computer, that would run various servers 24/7 for the user such as email, social media, VoIP, etc.
FreedomBox isn't dead. Take a look:
I am a translator!
exactly. I use opnmailbox. I send and receive very normal and boring mails. If I need to send something important I encrypt my mail.
I don't think the french dudes read my mails or send any info (boring unintersting info) to anyone or at least I hope so. But, yes, it is true. I don't know if they do. I know htey are far better then the vast majority of providers. Certainly better then donoevil bjatches, miscroshit or gulliver yaaaaaaahoooo..
If your messages are important encrypt them!!!!
As far as we know from the snowden files gnupg works and it works well
Supertramp, i have to say that i love your slang!
> What other people's run on their computers is none of your business. It is sad for them if they run software that do not respect their freedoms. That does not affect your use of their services though.
It does not directly affect you but it does directly affect the society which should make you think twice.
I can suggest the following:
-Gandi.net Use only FOOS and support Foss community and EFF
- Runbox.com Only FOSS, Privacy friendly
- Flokinet.is orangewebsite.com they are based on iceland and so are benefit from MMI (modern media Initiative).
Good Luck
I hope my question don't be out topic.
I'm searching a hosting GRATIS service too, taking into account all the principles Trisquel community shares in order to public websites for social and environmental projects.
I only need the possibility to create an FTP account to upload my own web pages made in HTML5 and CSS3.
Somebody could help me?
Thanks in advance
The only one I'm aware of is 000webhost. It's blocked by AT&T for some reason, unfortunately (this started a few years ago).
In 2014 I was searching for a VPS provider committed with the free software philosophy: one that doesn't advertises, sells, or provides specific support for proprietary software, calls the OS by the name GNU/Linux, has a policy of avoiding proprietary software other than proprietary JS, BIOS and firmware, and states it supports for free software in its web site. I evaluated at least 64 VPS providers (I know this lower bound because I built an incomplete list), my search lasted more than 2 weeks and I asked several free software supporters, in the FSFLA general mailing list and in this forum. I found only 2 of them that meet my criterion: GNUtransfer and Corehost. A free software supporter kindly offered hosting the project in his VPS so I didn't hire a VPS in the end, but the project failed.
Ideally, we would only give our money to ethical business which also abide by the same rule (note the recursion, and that it requires that there is a set of business and people which only do business among themselves and all of them are ethical), but that is incompatible with living in society. This criterion is much, much stronger than the “committed with the free software philosophy” mentioned above and is not attainable in practice. I'm mentioning this only for comparison.
Some other free software friendly VPS providers: Linode (among others) sponsors, the software freedom day. Bytemark develops free software and it seems to have a mild interest in the free software philosophy. Positive Internet supports open source and according to what they told me: their policy is “always to prefer Free Software and hardware where practical.”, they encourage clients to use free software, sponsor (among others) the Debian long term support, and the founder apparently gives talks about free software.
There are practical considerations too. If you have never used a VPS, and you do not have experience setting up a mail server, I recommend practicing in a virtual machine. Configure the virtual machine as you would configure the VPS; this means using only SSH and not the graphical display. You should also set up attack protections and simulate DoS attacks and spam.
Jason Self may provide more information on hosting your own e‐mail server because that is what he does, but he uses a home computer.
Regards.
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