I currently get my internet connectivity, e-mail service, and web-hosting service from the same provider. I recently complained to my ISP about backscatter SPAM I was getting from other people's infected machines that were sending out SPAM to invalid e-mail addresses and spoofing me as the sender. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_(email) for good articles about these subjects.) Their response was to suspend my e-mail access and delete my web site!
I finally got my e-mail access back, but my web site is still down. This experience has convinced me that tying my e-mail and web-hosting to my ISP is a bad idea. The two extra services are free to subscribers to their internet access service, but I don't want problems in one area to adversely affect the other areas. Clearly that is not the case now. So I am looking for a good e-mail provider and a good web-hosting provider. For the e-mail service I want a provider that has good protection against backscatter SPAM, provides a web-based e-mail client, and does not force me to view tons of ads in order to get to their web-mail client. I want all transmission of credentials, particularly passwords, passed between the client and the server, to be encrypted, not sent across the network in clear text, where a sniffer operating in promiscuous mode could intercept them. I also want the e-mail provider to work well with Debian mailing lists. (I have heard, for example, that when gmail users post to a list to which they are subscribed they do not receive copies of their own posts.) For web-hosting, I am looking for one which allows me to upload and download web pages and other files to my site via SSL-encrypted FTP, whether implicit or explicit SSL I don't care, so that passwords sent across the internet cannot be intercepted by a sniffer. Obviously, low cost is important too. I'm not a business. My web site is providing a public service for free. There are no ads on my web site, and there is no money coming in to pay for the web hosting. Another important consideration is that I don't want the service provider, e-mail or web-hosting, selling information about me to anyone. So, does anyone wish to share their experiences, good or bad? Is there anyone you wish to recommend? Is there anyone you want to warn me to stay away from? All opinions are welcome.
