… For Fun[1] and Profit[2]

Email is pervasive these days. Everyone expects you to have an email address, the guy at AutoZone asks for an email address at check out. It’s not hard to get email service. There are plenty of companies that offer email service, many of them “for free”.  If you have a smartphone or home Internet service, you can probably get email service through those providers. This is not strictly free, since it’s part of a package you’re paying for, even if you don’t use it. But the point is that anyone can get email service, at little or no additional out of pocket cost. So what’s the problem?

Well, free email is not really free, of course. Those companies have to put kibble in the bowl somehow. They monetize your use of their service either by selling ads they hope you’ll look at, or by selling your data, whether they admit it or not[3]. Even if you are paying for the service, most email providers have no principled regard for your privacy. They’ll cough up your entire mail history at the first casual interest from any law-enforcement agency, with or without troubling to involve a judge[4]. And in the current environment, some of them will cut you off from your account with no recourse, if you happen to make yourself a high-enough-profile enemy of the mob. This taken-for granted, commodity service actually has some serious drawbacks. In fairness, there is at least one[5] email service provider that seems serious about privacy (maybe more, I honestly haven’t looked). But I decided a long time ago[6] to choose a different path: operate my own email service.

You may be thinking, that seems unnecessarily complicated. Complicated, yes. Unnecessarily… is subjective. For me, “the right way” is frequently synonymous with “the hard way.” In my defense, when I started this it was still common to get email through your ISP. Your address was tied to the ISP, so if you changed ISP, you changed your address. Gmail was just going into beta. Yahoo Mail was a thing, and I did for a time keep a Yahoo account as backup mail service. But I was an early adopter of not trusting “Big Tech”[7]. And, if I’m honest, it was interesting as a technical problem and appealing as a vanity project. My email address can be whatever I want it to be[8]. I don’t have to be joe.blow87@spymail.com, just because 86 Joe Blows have come before me.

So I propose to discuss the process of setting up your own email service from the ground up. I will note that, despite (or because of?[9]) my day job in computational research, I am not completely on top of the latest developments in the relevant technology. It’s probably closer to the truth to say I’m an idiot who knows just enough to be dangerous. There are plenty of Glibs in IT, so I’m sure there will be plenty of comments on what could or should be done differently or better. But I will say this: what I’m doing has, after some initial pains, worked for me. I’ve operated my email service, using the same email address, for 17 years, albeit with a few outages. I know where my mail is stored, and I know what security measures protect it. No one will subpoena my email without my knowledge[10]. To the extent possible, I completely control my email.

There are downsides. It is complicated, there are a lot of moving parts. When, not if, something breaks, it will be on you to fix it. There are capital and operational expenses that have to weighed against any perceived benefit. Most people, even those with IT experience[11], will decide against the cost and effort. For my part, however, I’m satisfied with how it has worked out for me.

 What You’ll Need

  • A computer to run the email software, and store emails.
  • A reliable Internet connection.
  • A static IP address, so computers on the internet can find you.
  • A domain name, so people on the internet can find you.
  • An operating system.
  • Mail Transfer Agent software, to exchange email with other mail servers.
  • Mail Delivery Agent software, to deliver mail to where you can find it to read it.
  • Mail User Agent software, to read your emails.[12]

I’ll discuss all this stuff in more detail in further posts, assuming there’s any interest.

 

[1] That’s a lie, it’s not fun.

[2] Or profitable.

[3] Google has totally stopped trawling through your email. Pinky swear.

[4] National Security Letter, my ass.

[5] https://protonmail.com

[6] 2004, according to the oldest emails in my Sent folder. Hording FTW.

[7] Trust-in-authority issues is my thing.

[8] Unnnnless someone else already registered your super witty domain name. Sad trombone.

[9] In a lot of ways, enterprise computing best practices crash with innovative computational research. Ask our Risk people.

[10] Like anyone gives two shits about what’s in my email, but it’s the principle.

[11] Especially those in IT.

[12] MUA software is not strictly part of operating the email service, but I bring it up because I will expressly not be deploying a webmail interface.