Helm: Personal Email Server • Hacker News Board

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#131

Post by gambler » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

andr wrote: post #65

I never understand why people think having your files physically in their homes is somehow more secure than a data center. - You run the risk of hardware failure, which would take days to recover. When your warranty expires, it'd cost you, too. - Disk failure may lose all your data. - Fire, theft, or hurricanes may destroy it. - You still give access to your data to a company, which controls software updates and the…

It's hilarious how solvable most of these problems are, and yet they aren't even closed to be solved.

Like, backups. Everyone knows how this can be done. Have automated scheduled backups. Encrypt them. Send to offsite storage. This should be handled through a generic backup protocol so you can choose your provider and be sure the app doesn't siphon your personal data.

Users should not need to manually fuck around to set this up for every computer and every app they use. This should be absolutely standard. Preferably built at OS level. I know Ubuntu had something of this sort, but IIRC it wasn't based on an open standard where you could choose your own storage provider. Windows? Hah.

Instead, developers strip users of all control over their data claiming it's for their own good, and push everything to a myriad proprietary cloud solution through random protocols with dubious security implications.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#132

Post by Scirra_Tom » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

If encrypted emails are stored on Helms cloud, why do we need hardware? Isn't a software solution possible where the user holds the encryption keys?

And secondly, if residential internet cuts off - would I lose emails sent to me?

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#133

Post by dwg » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

cwyers wrote: post #114

garry wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because with Helm only you hold the encryption keys.

But that's completely orthogonal to owning a piece of hardware. You could run a managed cloud e-mail service where only the users hold the encryption keys, too. How is this a hardware problem?

Yes, this is what protonmail.com offers.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#134

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

ajross wrote: post #55

_verandaguy wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap, US ISPs are completely absurd. This definitely isn't a thing (or at least not enforced in any way) in Canada; most of my friends run on-prem web services out of their basements or closets.

It's not enforced. I've had HTTP and SSH available on Comcast and Verizon lines for... decades, I guess. No one cares. SMTP is more problematic because of spam: outbound traffic on port 25 is blocked, so a true home mail server won't work without a reachable gateway mail server somewhere else. That's basically what the linked product is: they manage the protocol side of the service on your behalf, and forward all the…

[deleted]

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#135

Post by gsreenivas » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

bachmeier wrote: post #34

$99/year? They are targeting an extremely small market. I can get Fastmail for a fraction of that amount, and I don't see much of an advantage with this - and I'm one of the few willing to pay for something I get elsewhere for free.

hey bachmeir - our Helm servers do not limit the number of users. For a family, for example, you'll typically come out ahead on cost with our product.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#136

Post by icedchai » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

qwertay wrote: post #71

andr wrote: post #65

I never understand why people think having your files physically in their homes is somehow more secure than a data center. - You run the risk of hardware failure, which would take days to recover. When your warranty expires, it'd cost you, too. - Disk failure may lose all your data. - Fire, theft, or hurricanes may destroy it. - You still give access to your data to a company, which controls software updates and the…

I think just about every internet connection can run email just fine.

Not necessarily. Incoming email: port 25 is blocked on many residential connections. Outgoing email: If you send email from a residential IP block you're likely going to be flagged as spam.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#137

Post by garry » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

cwyers wrote: post #95

andr wrote: post #65

I never understand why people think having your files physically in their homes is somehow more secure than a data center. - You run the risk of hardware failure, which would take days to recover. When your warranty expires, it'd cost you, too. - Disk failure may lose all your data. - Fire, theft, or hurricanes may destroy it. - You still give access to your data to a company, which controls software updates and the…

Yeah, there is no convenient backup policy that doesn't obviate most of the purported benefits of this device. You have to store your backups somewhere off-site to have any kind of data safety, and unless you're dumping out to tapes or some other physical media and stashing your backups in a safety deposit box, that's going to be a server somewhere.

Developers and devops folks can certainly do this, I know I have had to do that before for my production data.

Part of the point (and the impressive software that has been built here) is that backups happen transparently, and if anything ever happens to the Helm you can get another one and get back up and running by restoring from online backups. It's the same principle: things can happen to your iPhone but you can get up and running with a new one easily.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#138

Post by brtknr » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

I will be surprised if this takes off. Sounds like a glorified Western Digital's MyCloud with a raspberry pi server... Also that annual subscription is a joke after purchasing the hard disk outright.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#139

Post by msoucy » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:39 PM UTC

jawns wrote: post #9

Don't most ISPs ban residential accounts from running something like this? Comcast terms: > use or run dedicated, stand-alone equipment or servers from the Premises that provide network content or any other services to anyone outside of your Premises local area network (“Premises LAN”), also commonly referred to as public services or servers. Examples of prohibited equipment and servers include, but are not limited t…

OK, tangental but concerning. According to that Comcast quote, are you not actually allowed to host a personal website using bandwidth that you pay for? Or is it specifically forbidding "public" web hosting, where "anybody" is allowed to host their own sites?

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#140

Post by gsreenivas » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

jstanley wrote: post #62

gsreenivas wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alex - Giri Sreenivas, co-founder of Helm here. We've designed security from the silicon up to make this device very difficult to hack. That means implementing secure boot, full disk encryption and utilizing a Secure Enclave for managing keys on the device. And yes, you could definitely do this on a raspberry pi. That's what we used to prototype. It's not great for a long last, durable and secure platform though.

Sorry... you designed your own ICs for this? That is a big claim. If that's not what you mean, what does "from the silicon up" mean?

Sorry if that wasn't clear. We did not design our own ICs. We selected an SoC for its security capabilities and designed our solution to utilize it integrated with our firmware. We're using an SoC from NXP.