Thanks so much.

I listen to Security Now. Steve always groans when GoDaddy and Network Associates come up.

On another topic. Have you ever looked at Namecheap VPS service? For that I am with Linode but they were bought by Akami. Nothing has really changed yet. Actually maybe some more options but I worry about the enshitifacation phase that may come. Hoping for the best but thinking of options.

Fastmail is probably the front runner. The cost which is maybe $132 a year seems a bit much but doable. They also do not support PGP and WKD. The namecheap premium plan would we would be $72 a year and even less with the current promo. They also have a cpanel mail solution too which is even less. Similarly mxroute is about $49 year for more too and seems like it may be run by people with similar attention to detail.

I agree though that Fastmail is a good choice and a more define long term reputation for email.

Thanks. Interesting.

Just FYI, I was talking multiple SMTP servers not IMAP servers. If I did it, I would have 2 public facing SMTP servers which would then route to an internal SMTP server probably with a single IMAP server. The routing would probably be over a private link not a public one and the final server would present only IMAP publically. Really reduces attack surface.

Thanks. Great ideas. Had not considered the web issue. I actually have a VPS for other things at Linode. I could just add my new “.net” domain to that and setup something. Let rest is fine. We are transitioning over the next 6 months and hope to not change for a long time after that. So we have time to get this correct.

I also have mail setup in my VPS for other reasons so I do understand mail basics. Including SPF etc. Never really had any delivery issues but I do not use it generally. I think my old domain which I have had for 5 years has a fine reputation. Good point about the one I just purchased. Just do not want to move my general mail there or commit to setting it up and worse maintaining the multiple VPS systems needed to really do mail correctly. That is, I would want to have at least two incoming SMTP servers in two different data centers then maybe separate IMAP server too that they route to. Then there is the webmail client and locking it all down. Cost and worse yet effort and time mount up and it’s not a one time deal. Not something my wife could do and not me 20 years from now.

Thanks.

I was wondering about these guys. Seems too small to early stage. It says Beta. Feels like a one person operation though maybe I am wrong. Also web traffic is really low though maybe it is because they do not use trackers.

Happy to here any insights.

Oh I know. We live in interesting times.

As you might guess Proton or Mailfence are my top picks if they were in the US. Regarding Proton, unless I am missing something I would need the Ultimate plan side I need more then one account and domain hosting. That is very expensive.

This is really helpful. Especially the FAQ. Few questions:

• Web Mail SSL Certs with Roundcube? One of the articles said something about TLS connection issues.

• spam filtering… is that included or configurable?

• SPF, DKIM, … is that included or configurable.

• CalDAVand WebDAV address book and calendar sync. Possible? Not a deal breaker as we currently replicate another way through our lan Nextcloud server.

• Their SMTP server reputation? Any issues?

For what it is worth I use POP3 with my existing provider. Like not keeping my mail there. Our pattern is to just pull not delete on our phones and pull and delete on our workstations. Feels Like we need to move to IMAP though so we do not have to review our mail twice. Also feels like we have to push SPAM filtering upstream. Thunderbird has great filtering but K9 Mail does not.

Thanks.

Interesting. So to confirm, your saying in the hosting panel I can configure it and they have SMTP, IMAP, and Webmail servers that they maintain I can use? No need to setup a VPS for it?

Thing about IMAP and other open protocols is that it probably lowers security and it certainly increases attack surface. So there are downsides. On the other hand ultimate security is not my biggest need. More interested in compatibility. I like the Proton, Mailfence, and Mailbox.org direction to be compatible and also support PGP with WKD so they can interoperate.

Nicely put. I seem to remember some government type trying to say it was not spying to record your data and mine it as long as a human did not access it. Kind of a similar thing Google says about Gmail.

Wasn’t it the CIA directory that lied under oath then later said it was the least dishonest thing he could say. He got away with that too.

You mentioned mxroute. Someone else mentioned. Do you have any thoughts about them. You mentioned your moving to Fastmail instead.

Thanks. Interesting. I will take a look.

Yes… email filtering is a huge problem. Do you know if the issue was with your domain or whether it happens with Fastmail’s standard domains also?

Regarding Tuta… not IMAP/SMTP and not US, so no for me. Otherwise I agree.

I looked at them. From me that feels like trading a US software giant for an Indian one. So I would choose Google Workspace first. I agree though Zoho is interesting.

I believe in being as local as one can. One cannot always assume that those global data links will be up the way the world is going. Also if you think email security is bad in the US then how is it better to ship data half way around the world. Makes no sense to me. The US is not suppose to spy on US citizens in the US but every thing that passes a border is up for grabs as far as I know.

I could be handy to read you mail on the web client. Depends on how secret you want your PGP key, how much you trust your provider. I would argue that in most cases it would be better for the provider to manage the keys then to have no one use PGP which is what we mostly have now.

Security is getting better on the transport side.

Thanks. Like the sentiment. Yes I can do this but my wife cannot. So this option is out. It needs to be a solution that she can maintain alone if something happens to me. This concern gets a lot more real as one gets older.