Helm: Personal Email Server • Hacker News Board

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#441

Post by dorfsmay » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:06 PM UTC

sandworm101 wrote: post #413

ktpsns wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany, with Unitymedia Buisness, I get symmetric 100Mbit/sec over coax (even in mid-size cities), a static IPv4 adresse and excellent customer service. Price tag: 35EUR/month.

Canada. 100$/month for 150down/12 up residential. Never seen more than 50 down. Regular outages (for 30min every few days). If the US is third-world in terms of service, canada is an uncontacted amazon tribe.

In Canada. 100 CAD/month. 150 both up and down.

If you are in a major city, it might be time to check the other ISP in town. I'm glad I did.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#442

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:07 PM UTC

wink wrote: post #373

8fingerlouie wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so glad to be living in Europe. When it comes to consumer internet services, the US is a 3rd world country, which is kinda odd considering most of the western world does their business there. I just checked the terms on my 300/300 fiber connection, as well as my (backup, company paid) 25/5 ADSL. They're almost identical: * no spamming. * no racism/unethical behavior. * no portscanning. * no illegal downloads/uplo…

I'm so glad to be living in Europe. Germany's third biggest city, I can only get 50/10 Mbit, maybe 100/20 - no fiber in sight. No static IP and no guarantees anyone will accept mail from this dialup subnet. /s

[deleted]

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#443

Post by pathseeker » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:12 PM UTC

Aeolun wrote: post #146

scott00 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct. However I think in practice you can get away with it if you keep bandwidth low. I've been running a OwnCloud/NextCloud server from my residential Comcast account for years with no issues.

Meanwhile, I installed backblaze on my home machine, which started backing up around 500gb of my disk, and summarily got a message from my provider that outbound traffic of 30gb is an ‘inconceivable’ amount of traffic during normal use, and if I could please stop, or else (lawyers). I wonder what happens if nextcloud does a full sync to a new device.

> if I could please stop, or else (lawyers).

Lawyers, really? Why wouldn't they just cancel your account?

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#444

Post by IPTN » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:14 PM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #402

8fingerlouie wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so glad to be living in Europe. When it comes to consumer internet services, the US is a 3rd world country, which is kinda odd considering most of the western world does their business there. I just checked the terms on my 300/300 fiber connection, as well as my (backup, company paid) 25/5 ADSL. They're almost identical: * no spamming. * no racism/unethical behavior. * no portscanning. * no illegal downloads/uplo…

The telcos only enforce the server rule if you are causing problems like doing something illegal, torrenting, or maxing out your bandwidth 24/7. I’ve had multiple servers running over the years and never had any issues with Comcast or AT&T. Generally they don’t care if it’s for personal use. I’ve heard of them shutting people down for something they saw as business related. They didn’t really get shut down, it was mo…

What ISP do you have that you can get upgrade to a business account with the same speeds for only $30 extra a month? AT&T would charge me $300/mo for the same speeds that I currently pay $80/mo for.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#445

Post by dorfsmay » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:15 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…

Even if they don't block, if you run an email server on an ISP ip block, a lot of other mail servers will refuse you connections.

If you're going to tin your own mail server, it's paying for a good VPS. Beside the guaranteed static IP, being on an IP block with a good reputation, good VPS provider have redundant power sources and console access over the web, which you are unlikely to have either from home.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#446

Post by mdevere » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:27 PM UTC

i really like the idea but it's too expensive for me. i would consider this it if was $200 didn't have a subscription fee.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#447

Post by microcolonel » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:50 PM UTC

keehun wrote: post #3

Interesting product with great potential. Their website doesn't seem to address my two main concerns: 1. How do they ensure high, non-spam delivery rates to the main email services like Gmail, Fastmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft? 2. How would the product work in case Helm the company/service goes away (or even just service outage)? Can the device work on its own without the need for their web service (perhaps with lower d…

While I see others here who have had trouble with deliverability, I'd just like to say that I have never had a failed delivery to GMail/Google Apps, Yahoo, or Microsoft. There are tools online which will receive email from you and help you configure your system properly for full deliverability.

I suspect whatever this Helm thing is, they manage to do things right on that front as well; everything else I don't know.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#448

Post by dsigurds » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:53 PM UTC

newman314 wrote: post #426

gsreenivas wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi keehun - thanks for posting this on HN! I'm the co-founder and CEO of Helm. 1 - First, we cross reference IP addresses we assign to gateway against known blacklists. This helps ensure emails will be delivered. We also fully support email authentication (DMARC, DKIM, SPF) and configure reverse DNS as well. Lastly, the IP address for a gateway stays fixed so the domain and IP will build reputation over time. Helm se…

Regarding #3, let's work through two use cases. A) I'm at home and B) I'm on the road. A) I can connect directly, no biggie. B) I am assuming that you would require a port opened/forwarded in the firewall to work in this case. Is this correct?

Hi newman314, we have a gateway server that we as a company manage the gives you remove access back to your Helm. We do this without requiring you to poke holes in your firewall because the Helm establishes an outbound VPN connection to the gateway.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#449

Post by cptnapalm » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 9:55 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…

The AT&T one only has to do with dial-up accounts and is mainly about maintaining a connection with dial-up when not actively using it.

Re: Helm: Personal Email Server

#450

Post by jamesfisher » Wed, Oct 17, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

I got a long way down the page before I realized this was a physical device. Most of the text suggests it's a self-hosted email server, like postfix etc.