There are definitely gatekeepers. Even if your hosting provider isn’t blocking port 25 by default, SPF, DKIM and DMARC will see your emails going straight into the recipient’s junk folder/spam filter if not correctly configured. Hosting your own mail server at home is also a fantastic way to piss off your ISP, lose emails to downtime, have your IP blacklisted from many services and open up your environment to exploitation. It can be done but let’s not pretend that it’s easy or that there aren’t barriers to entry.
Mail servers are like filo pastry. Sure, you could go to the inconvenience and effort of making it yourself and I’m sure it’ll be very satisfying to do so. But 99% of professionals use the store bought version, and for good reason, because it’s a lot of effort for an end result that is no better and in all likelihood probably worse.
Mostly agree, but as someone who has been hosting my own email for years I can tell it is, in fact, better.
Quick note for hosting one on a residential IP - that would no longer piss any ISP off. You would simply not deliver anything anywhere due to IP being blacklisted by default.
Tier 3: new hosting companies trying to offer something different than what’s available
Tier 4: the big boys
I don’t want anything to do with tier 2. I want tier 2 wiped off the face of earth. This means tier 1 is just not gonna happen as long as tier 2 is around.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, hosting an email server will not be a good time. It’s very easy to produce an environment that is easily exploited.
A somewhat inexpensive shared hosting plan allows you to host your own email though. I get it done for <$100/yr. and have little to no limitation over self-hosting.
I mean, not necessarily in that case I’d imagine, since one presumably pays the ISP for internet services, so any “free” things bundled with it could also simply be priced into that contract already.
Not necessarily. My university provides a mail box for every student and their privacy policy is quite transparent and honest. The only limitations are related to the rate you can send emails, to prevent spam.
I also have a work email address, but I use it for work stuff and I lose it if I end my contract. Can you keep your university address after you graduate?
To be fair, if it is “free” you are probably paying your mail provider with your data.
I assume he meant free like speech, not free like beer.
There are no gatekeepers to email, anyone can get a domain and their own server.
There are definitely gatekeepers. Even if your hosting provider isn’t blocking port 25 by default, SPF, DKIM and DMARC will see your emails going straight into the recipient’s junk folder/spam filter if not correctly configured. Hosting your own mail server at home is also a fantastic way to piss off your ISP, lose emails to downtime, have your IP blacklisted from many services and open up your environment to exploitation. It can be done but let’s not pretend that it’s easy or that there aren’t barriers to entry.
Mail servers are like filo pastry. Sure, you could go to the inconvenience and effort of making it yourself and I’m sure it’ll be very satisfying to do so. But 99% of professionals use the store bought version, and for good reason, because it’s a lot of effort for an end result that is no better and in all likelihood probably worse.
Mostly agree, but as someone who has been hosting my own email for years I can tell it is, in fact, better.
Quick note for hosting one on a residential IP - that would no longer piss any ISP off. You would simply not deliver anything anywhere due to IP being blacklisted by default.
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC would like to have a gatekeeping word
Blacklists, greylists, whitelists. All just a big fuck you from the big vendors to anyone trying to self host.
There are four tiers of email hosting in my mind.
Tier 1: self hosted by nerds
Tier 2: sketchy fly by night scammers
Tier 3: new hosting companies trying to offer something different than what’s available
Tier 4: the big boys
I don’t want anything to do with tier 2. I want tier 2 wiped off the face of earth. This means tier 1 is just not gonna happen as long as tier 2 is around.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, hosting an email server will not be a good time. It’s very easy to produce an environment that is easily exploited.
A somewhat inexpensive shared hosting plan allows you to host your own email though. I get it done for <$100/yr. and have little to no limitation over self-hosting.
You try that once, but it doesn’t last.
Or your ISP just provides you with one when you sign up.
Not all of them anymore. Verizon doesn’t, for example.
Their point still stands
I mean, not necessarily in that case I’d imagine, since one presumably pays the ISP for internet services, so any “free” things bundled with it could also simply be priced into that contract already.
That ToS definitely gives them the right to sell whatever data you provide to them though, at least in the US.
Sure, but won’t that happen regardless of if you use their email service or not?
Yes. The point I was saying stands is the “paying with data” bit more than the “free (as in beer)” bit. I know youre still paying to use an ISP :p
My mail server is in the cabinet above my desk.
I guess you’re right - my mail provider does have all my data - but my mail provider is Me!
Not necessarily. My university provides a mail box for every student and their privacy policy is quite transparent and honest. The only limitations are related to the rate you can send emails, to prevent spam.
I also have a work email address, but I use it for work stuff and I lose it if I end my contract. Can you keep your university address after you graduate?
I can keep the basic “user@university.br” one, I can’t keep the optional department-specific ones like “user@bioinformaticslab.university.br” if I quit my position or graduate.
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