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Comment by luckyshot | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure I want my e-mail stored in government servers...

Yet I don't like private companies storing it...

And it's too complicated to manage on my own. Damn.

Yeah, I run my own, but thing is, I don't have a RIGHT to do so, I am just lucky that my ISP most mercifully lets me bounce my outgoing mail through their SMTP server, and they blocked outgoing port 25, so that's the only way for me out.

I have some right to the domain on which I host my mail, but I don't have a right to a fixed static IP, and I don't have a right to be able to make outgoing connections on port 25 (or any port, I guess?), and I also don't have a right to a bouncer, so in practice, I don't have a right to host my own mail, there's no law giving me the right to demand any of those things, it's up to me to be a combination of lucky and wealthy enough to make it happen.

Did they block port 993? Port 443? Port 80?

Those ports are not important, they are for my client to connect to my server, which happens entirely within my LAN, but how do I go about SENDING mail if outgoing connections on ports 25, 587, and 465 are blocked ?

Basically, I want to send a mail to you, your server is listening on those ports because you're a normal person, and didn't rediret port 80 to be your SNMP incoming.

So, I try to make a connection to your domain:25, my packets won't even leave my ISP, my outgoing connection is simply dropped.

Try it, are you lucky enough that you can ? If you speak a bit of SMTP you can send email from telnet like that.

You can configure your own SMTP server on the internet to listen on whatever ports you like and configure your client to use that.

Due to those concerns I've settled for a privacy focused private company set up in a country with strong information- and privacy regulation. Protonmail.

I think protonmail is a great thing, but you don't have a right to your account there, if they turn bad and decide to shut you down, what law back you up in your demand to have your account reinstated ?

You are correct. I own my domain, so will be able to move my email to another provider (or self host) if I ever require it.

I also keep a local backup of my email so if the day ever comes I am ready.

All of your communications, sure probably not, but for all the ones that are already for government purposes, with government entities, and other basic purposes it's a good place to start.

At least some uniquely identified email address is better than hoping things like court documents with legal implications get paper mailed to some previously known physical address you may or may not still have any access or relationship with.

we actually have something like this, but it's a too-specialized system, so it's not possible to send "mail" to people unless you're a big enough company to register for that privilege, and users can't reply via the system, so it's a receive-only solution that's also incompatible with standard technologies.

For sure they are a kind of black box and have more information than needed. But I met a lot of people who trust blindly on them and it is crazy for someone who came from Brazil - the place where no one trust on government about anything.

But, for me, in the end, email must die.

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