On 2/24/22 10:38 AM, Jaroslaw Rafa via mailop wrote:
I guess theres no single answer to that question that everybody will agree upon :).
Let's agree to /disagree/. ;-)
But as for me, I would understand hosting any service X (be it email, web or anything else) "entirely" at your home (on a home server) as the case when that home server provides everything needed for the service X to work (except of course the Internet connection itself and maybe DNS, as you should have at least secondary DNS server somewhere outside your network). No other resources (even belonging to you, but outside your home) and/or third parties are involved (of course - again - except your ISP who provides your home Internet connection).
I think you've introduced a new restriction that I didn't realize existed when I previously replied. It seems as if you have introduced "at your home", which would preclude a VPS / CO-LO. However I was thinking "self hosted" /wherever/ that may be located, which allows for a VPS / CO-LO.
My goal of the "entirely self hosted" was to avoid external entities at the email application layer (SMTP, IMAP, HTTP, etc.) on the receiving side. E.g. from the inbound MX onward.
If you use a VPS or even a colocated server in a data center, that is no more the case when you use *only* the home server. And if you need a VPS (or colocated box), why not host your mail entirely on that VPS?
Maybe it's silly, but my understanding is that it's more difficult to /legally/ gain access to my email when it's hosted in my house as opposed to hosted on a VPS / CO-LO *without* /my/ /knowledge/ of it. As in the police can take a warrant to the VPS provider / CO-LO and gain access to things /without/ /my/ /knowledge/. Be it from a lack of monitoring on my part, gag order, what have you. Conversely, the police can't come into my home *without* /my/ /knowledge/, even with a warrant.
Note: This is predicated that I am, have been, and will be, WFH during the execution of the warrant.
Mail storage does not need a lot of disk and even a small VPS will do (as an example, currently my entire mailbox, which contains mail archives since 1997, is little under 9 GB in size), and it's simpler - you do not need to split the service between two servers.
I completely agree.
And in this particular case we are discussing, not only a VPS is involved, but also a 3rd party service that acts both as a MX for incoming mail and as an outgoing SMTP server that actually delivers mail to recipients.
I see no need for the 3rd party SMTP server when using a VPS / CO-LO as described. As such, the email (SMTP / IMAP / HTTP) is all "entirely self hosted" (on a system in my house).
The OP even said that the VPS could be omitted, but the 3rd party service is essential for him. For me, that definitely doesn't qualify as self-hosting.
The OP has offered subsequent clarification on this which I think mostly voids your statement.
-- Grant. . . . unix || die
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