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Helm: Personal Email Server

thehelm.com

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Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#262

Post by gsreenivas »

lvh wrote: post #149

If the thing you're going against is "corporate server controls your data", why is the answer "EC2 proxy we control"? It sounds like I have to trust that server just as much, and essentially you're telling me you're, for some unspecified reason, more trustworthy than Google? Do you have stats on e-mail deliverability given that you're suggesting I send all my e-mail through a random EC2 EIP? (Is it actually an EIP, o…

Hi lvh - it's not a proxy. The EC2 instance can't see your emails. The Helm server initiates and receives TLS connections through the instance so it's really an extra hop on the internet. We don't see or keep data on deliverability of individual Helm servers. We use a dedicated EIP that we ensure are not on blacklists and configure reverse DNS as well.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#265

Post by lvh »

gsreenivas wrote: post #183
Guest9812398 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. For a service that is about security, it honestly leaves me feeling very vulnerable, and I wouldn't consider it for that reason. I'm concerned about my emails being delivered, increased spam, a thief (or government employee) walking out of my home with my email server, my modem needing a reboot while I'm on vacation and not being able to send or receive emails, and my neighbor accidentally burning down my apa…

Using a hardware root of trust, secure boot and a Secure Enclave for managing keys used for full disk encryption, it will be very difficult to extract decrypted data from a Helm server. The keys never leave the Secure Enclave, they aren't available to the application processor or memory. Most cloud-based email services hold email in the clear - we believe this means you don't really own your data. Encrypted email ser…

Hang on: are you suggesting cloud e-mail services don't use FDE?

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#266

Post by sigi45 »

Sooo you want me to pay 100$ per year for hardware i'm running at home already?

Nope.

And i also do not want to have my email gateway at home. I do move, i do like to shutdown hardware, i like to travel and might not be able to access my hardware.

There are good small and secure email providers out there which costs money. I would even prever a managed vps server somewhere.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#270

Post by js2 »

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…

For AT&T, that restriction is only on dial-up accounts:

> with respect to dial-up accounts, using any software or device designed to defeat system time-out limits or to allow Customer's account to stay logged on while Customer is not actively using the IP Services or using such account for the purpose of operating a server of any type;

AFAIK, AT&T does not prohibit running a server on broadband accounts.

What's being done by Helm is not much different than using Back to my Mac or Plex or SlingTV.

In any case, these ToS are over-broad and most customers probably violate them every day, especially the copyright provisions. The ToS are not enforced to the letter but allow the ISP to terminate an account if the violations are egregious. I don't think running a Helm server would get you booted.

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