All this new excitement with Lemmy and federation has got me thinking that maybe I should learn to run my own instance. What always comes up though is how email is the orginal federated technology.

I am looking at proxmox and see that is has a built in email server, so now I am wondering if it is time to role my own.

I stopped using gmail a long time ago, and right now I use ProtonMail, but I am super frustrated with the dumb limitation of only having a single account for the app. I get why they do it, and I am willing to pay, but it is pricey and I don’t know if that is my best option. I guess it is worth it since ProtonVPN is included. It looks like they are expanding their suite.

Is it worth it? Can I make it secure? Is it stupid to run it off a local computer on my home network?

  • MattEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    Cool!

    Some features I really like include the following.

    • They’ve got a totally decent email client.
    • You can have more than one domain, if you want.
    • You can use masked email, which is really nice for privacy reasons.

    Good luck!

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      I am basically sold. I still want to learn how to set up my own server. I think it would be valuable to have an intranet accessed by VPN for REAL PRIVATE STUFF.

      Any suggestions for uses cases with masked email? I think I get the concept and have ideas of how to make use of it, but maybe I am missing some scenarios. Like, can I have a prepared list of address to give out to strangers? Some times it is necessary, but I don’t want some rando to take advantage of my trust.

      • MattEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        The main thing with Masked Email is that you can use it to sign-up for different services. Like your phone number, it’s another way that your identity can be connected between accounts. It’s also something you can use to give out to people, without having to give out your read address. I know with your own domain, you can use email addresses at that domain or you can use fastmail.com. I prefer to make masked emails using fastmail.com, so no one even knows my domain.

        • @[email protected]OPEnglish
          2•1 year ago

          This is absolutely a feature I wish I had started using a long time ago, or I even had available to me. There have been plenty of times were I sign up for something that is not an automated mailing list, just a mass send out, and there is no way to unsubscribe.

          Aliases are not something I was thinking about when I first posted, but it is definitely the most necessary feature now that I think about it.