[kwlug disc.] Home e-mail server vs. freeshell.org?

[Unsolicited]

Paul Nijjar wrote, On 6/10/2007 5:53 PM:
> On Sun, 10 Jun 2007, Unsolicited wrote:
> 
>> Anyone have any downsides to doing this on freeshell? e.g.
>> Performance, Speed? Paul?
> 
>     Well, I'm just using freeshell.org as a Hotmail/GMail/whatever
> replacement, because for whatever reason I trust a grassroots
> politicized UNIX project more than I trust Google.

Agreed. I expected that in you when you made your choice - it's those
same considerations that made me investigate further, after having
seen you commit to it. [i.e. Posting your e-mail address there, for
personal use.] If Paul choose it ...
{and it doesn't work, blame him!}
{I doubt I'm alone in respecting your opinions. Nor alone in willing
to blame you.}


I have umpteen msn/gmail/yahoo/whatever accounts, mostly because you
have to create one in order to investigate the other features that
could be attractive. e.g. Yahoo / Gmail groups, shared yahoo
calendars, instant messaging, MS memberships.  It's exhausting.

> I ssh in and use PINE
> on their box, which can get laggy.

Yes, I've very much noted, and been irritated by the lag.

I was particularly looking forward to your opinions on that.

For the moment, as near as I can tell, I don't expect to use it much
as a shell. Maybe if I get interested in NetBSD and don't yet want to
commit hardware to it. Except for initially while I get over the
learning curve.

I'm hoping the lag isn't noticeable if I'm only mail reading/hosting
and html hosting. A minimum 15 minute span between imap/pop reads
should make the lag less an issue, I hope. Agree? Your experience
bears out? [If you have any by which you have been able to form an
opinion. If you only ssh/pine you may not have been able to.]

> 150MB of mail archives is pretty
> good, but it's small compared to what other commercial mail services
> offer. That can be an issue when people causally e-mail around 2MB PDF
> files.

Agreed. But, for example, golden, now execulink, gives you 5 accounts
with a 5 or 10 MB incoming max. message size. Each additional account
if $5 I believe, per month. With sdf ($36) you get as many as you
like. Without vpm, all me+{word} goes to me. With vpm ($20/annual) you
get 20 @pnijjar.freeshell.org accounts, plus 50 @mydomain.ca accounts.
[Still checking into incoming e-mail size restrictions.] They have
confirmed they can host any domain, e.g. @mydomain.ca.

Besides, e-mail should be transitory. It's all coming down by imap/pop
(for me).

>     So far the service has been pretty reliable for me, although it has
> not been perfect. Spam has not been much of a problem either.
> 
>     I take it you are looking at the VPM membership for $20 annually? I
> don't see how that is so different from getting mailboxes through an
> ISP.

VPM, yes.

Much cheaper. AFAIK. I'm never going to want 50 mailboxes, but I do
want more than 5. And I'm trying to get out of ISP/vendor lock in. I'm
going to have to change ISP's, and I only want to have to go through
the e-mail account notifications/changes once.

> You also won't get your own domain, I think -- the addresses would
> be something like user at unsolicited.freeshell.org . If you want more
> functionality than that it will cost you more.

I've confirmed that I can. Had to bboard and com to confirm - someone
had to point out http://sdf.lonestar.org/index.cgi?faq?VHOST?06,
particularly 'This will allow you to create POP3 mail accounts for
addresses associated with your domain.' Wouldn't have found it otherwise.

Really, when you think about it, it's just a dns service (which I
already have), within which is an MX record, which I can set. Then
it's just a matter of them willing to catch. Buried, I eventually came
across 'as well as the domain name you wish to use for VPM'. [Issue
'vpm' from command-line.]

> The SDF people have a way
> of asking for money a lot.

Yeah, I see that. Can't hardly blame them, I suppose. If you look at
join (http://sdf.lonestar.org/index.cgi?join), they're really not
asking for a lot. But it's certainly darned confusing initially to
figure out what is appropriate for yourself. e.g. Initially I thought
I would need (part of) DNS and VHOST, and VPM, $160/annual, but
eventually started thinking more clearly and chewed through the
material to see $20/annual gets me the one domain I want. Can't hardly
argue with US$20.

The ARPA US$36 (<CDN$40) is just a throwaway cost to investigating
sdf, and also avoids a US$1 or $5 fee just to get validated.

>     One issue you may need to check before getting a VPM membership is
> to see how quota gets allocated to these 20 mailboxes. I don't know
> whether the 20 mailboxes share 150MB of quota between them or what.

I suspect so, but can live with that. Mail being transitory and all.
Even if it turns out not to be enough, there are a number of annual
costs that should increase the space enough. i.e. At least they're not
the same cost monthly.

> - Paul

Thanks, I was particularly seeking your opinion(s).

As well as other's with respect to other reasonable ways of getting to
the same place.