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Switching from Gmail to FastMail

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Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#191

Post by zw »

maxsilver wrote: post #68

Is there any service like FastMail, with a FastMail-like quality web interface, that offers ActiveSync support? I don't mind paying a little extra to cover the licensing. But I don't want to be stuck with IMAP again -- the biggest draw for service for me is the "Contacts + Calendar + Tasks + Mail" instant syncing of something like ActiveSync. Rackspace E-mail comes closest from what I've tried. But being stuck on Out…

While I can't find myself living without push, it's not like ActiveSync is the silver bullet. Contacts in Exchange, for example, are a ridiculous and horrible mess with a limit of three on everything and no custom synced fields.

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#192

Post by eikenberry »

contingencies wrote: post #189
peterwwillis wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only S/MIME, PGP or similarly encrypted mail messages are secure. All other mail is routed through various servers which may or may not use an encrypted connection. It's like trusting the post office to never read your mail (which they have the authority to do if they perceive some kind of safety threat). Encrypt the message contents if you care for message privacy. If you want sender/receiver privacy too, you can tr…

encrypted mail messages are secure What is secure? If government sezies your key, in some jurisdictions they can compel you to release your passphrase (if one is required), then they can go back and decrypt absolutely everything you ever sent. (OTR gets around this but this is largely by leaving the network layer location privacy / initial authentication / key exchange problems out of scope.) Finally, traffic analysi…

Nothing is secure if you discount the rule of law.

http://xkcd.com/538/

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#193

Post by rdl »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #114
tlrobinson wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two ways the NSA can collect your email: fiber taps sucking up unencrypted SMTP connections, and "direct" collection from servers/FISA orders etc. Ironically if your email provider is in another country it's much more likely that emails to and from the US will be captured. It would be interesting to setup a mail service with numerous SMTP relays around the world and attempt to connect the "closest" (least l…

This would be trivial to do with the right DNS provider and virtual machines spread across the world.

I wonder if it's better to return an "optimized" DNS MX record or just anycast.

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#194

Post by djim »

ronaldx wrote: post #88
djim wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Google Apps business model, and all Google Enterprise products for that matter, do not rely on ads for revenue. Google sells their business customers a product and generates revenue through those sales. The TOS protects your data.

Perhaps you didn't understand my point. Google could easily decide to serve ads to paying customers, and it seems likely that they've left this option open to exercise later. The fact that they apparently "do not rely on ads" is irrelevant. There are plenty of existent services that have revenue from customers, but still serve ads (visible examples include: pay-TV, public transport)

They could, but they would have to change their TOS, which business customers would have to agree to. Most of these customers would not, thus destroying this portion of Google's business, so they would never do that. Ads are not a part of Google's Enterprise business model. I don't know how to state this more clearly.

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#195

Post by rdl »

tlrobinson wrote: post #110
tehwalrus wrote: post #5

American company, American servers, American jurisdiction. Sure they won't read your email, but the NSA will (just like Gmail.) Update: hmm, so Opera aren't american? interesting. All the servers are definitely in the US though: > "we have standard servers and a high speed connection in the US." - https://www.fastmail.fm/help/overview_about.html

There are two ways the NSA can collect your email: fiber taps sucking up unencrypted SMTP connections, and "direct" collection from servers/FISA orders etc. Ironically if your email provider is in another country it's much more likely that emails to and from the US will be captured. It would be interesting to setup a mail service with numerous SMTP relays around the world and attempt to connect the "closest" (least l…

With our VPN thing we're doing "nearest hop to destination outroute" for traffic (essentially the opposite of most network providers who try to get shit off their net as fast as possible); doing the same thing for incoming for services is essentially what CDNs do. A CDN you could trust (for policy + technical reasons) to handle this kind of thing for all kinds of traffic, combined with DoS protection like CF or Prolexic, would be kind of baller.

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#196

Post by brightsize »

decode wrote: post #188
ryanmcbride wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn, I was about to sign up until I read this. I have to handle a lot of my work from my phone, and if it doesn't work well then I don't think it would be too useful for me. Do you know if there's any plan for them to release an android app that would let my phone sync? And I do realize the irony in trying to cut out google while using an android phone.

> Do you know if there's any plan for them to release an android app that would let my phone sync? I use K-9 Mail on Android with Fastmail. They both support IMAP IDLE, so you get immediate push notifications of new messages.

Ditto here, K-9 + FM works as well as any desktop IMAP client that I have.

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#197

Post by brightsize »

masnick wrote: post #163
pan69 wrote: post #157

It seems that these Fastmail guys are primarily charging for storage. My question would be, do they allow to set up many different domains and email addresses inside a single account or is this a one email address/domain per account thing?

Yes, you can use as far as I can tell an unlimited number of domains and aliases in a single account. Another plus over Google Apps is that the aliases are domain-specific (as far as I could tell, aliases for Google Apps applied to all domains).

I've been on the "Enhanced" plan for years now and have at least a dozen domains and maybe a dozen and a half email addresses configured. FM will also let you (if not encourage you to) to use its DNS servers instead of your registrar's, but that's up to you. I generally use FM for DNS hosting but you absolutely do _not_ need to do this to host domain mailboxes with them.

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#198

Post by brightsize »

SamWhited wrote: post #128

Great post; I'd love to try the service but I have over 10 Gigs of content in my current Gmail and can't really justify spending an extra $119.95 a year extra on email. This makes me wish I could though.

So ... you could get FM's "Enhanced" account (10G mail storage + 2G file storage) for $40/yr and then pay $5/G for additional space. It sounds like $50/year, perhaps less, would get you what you need at FM.

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#199

Post by mikevm »

peterwwillis wrote: post #140
tehwalrus wrote: post #5

American company, American servers, American jurisdiction. Sure they won't read your email, but the NSA will (just like Gmail.) Update: hmm, so Opera aren't american? interesting. All the servers are definitely in the US though: > "we have standard servers and a high speed connection in the US." - https://www.fastmail.fm/help/overview_about.html

Only S/MIME, PGP or similarly encrypted mail messages are secure. All other mail is routed through various servers which may or may not use an encrypted connection. It's like trusting the post office to never read your mail (which they have the authority to do if they perceive some kind of safety threat). Encrypt the message contents if you care for message privacy. If you want sender/receiver privacy too, you can tr…

So why not use Gmail with PGP?

Re: Switching from Gmail to FastMail

#200

Post by mikevm »

socksy wrote: post #183
tombrossman wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Runbox still storing account passwords in plain text? They looked like a great option but when I set up an account recently they emailed me my username and password in plain text. I cancelled immediately but if they get the security basics right I may look at it again.

Whilst I can't condone the sending off passwords over in plain text, if done at the registration stage it doesn't necessarily mean that they're being stored as plain text.

There is absolutely no reason any service should ever email you back your password.
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