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Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

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Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#161

Post by developer2 »

Shacklz wrote: post #17
mensetmanusman wrote: post #4

I wonder if the fastmail protocol could be hidden in AWS-like data streams to take an approach like telegram. If they try to block it, they shut down their entire digital business infrastructure. I have been looking for an alternative to Gmail, does anyone have recommendations? Fastmail? Proton mail? What put me over the edge is my young friend had a heart attack, went to the hospital and (during recovery) logged int…

I'm a very happy customer of protonmail. They're consistently extending their offering (VPN, Calendar, Drive is up next), their pricing seems fair, albeit not exactly cheap, but to be honest though, I almost consider this to be a feature - I'm perfectly okay with paying good cash for something as important as mail. Their UI was somewhat lackluster but they recently released a completely overhauled version (just a few…

> Their UI was somewhat lackluster

I remember looking at ProntonMail 3 years ago, before I settled on Fastmail instead. To be clear, I have no intention of leaving Fastmail; they have the perfect feature set for me, and have been forthright and competent when it comes to publishing details regarding the problems that have cropped up with their service. I have nothing but respect for the Fastmail team. Russia is in the top 3 countries for which the blocking of Fastmail doesn't concern me; no service is immune to this kind of government interference.

That said… just to refresh my memory, and in case anything ever does happen to Fastmail in my country… isn't ProtonMail the one that had the WORST UI I've ever seen, where every click within the settings was a new maze embedded within another maze? I remember the UI for one of these popular and "secure" email hosts being so ultimately gross, as if it was designed and coded by a 10 year old who just discovered HTML with no knowledge of CSS, where it was just pages after pages of checkboxes and radio buttons with no documentation? Was that ProtonMail, or one of the other very few and far between options?

I remember only having looked at a couple of the modern options to cut my ties with Google, and Fastmail was so far above and beyond the other "viable options", such that it wasn't even really a choice. One of the options clearly looked like a lot of low-level work had gone into security, but that it was effectively unusable from the perspective of the users–including admins–who had to contend with its interface?

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#162

Post by yarcob »

farisjarrah wrote: post #110
yarcob wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also a happy Fastmail customer. They actually offer customer support (at least they did a couple of years ago when I needed it). I had an issue with Fastmail where I accidentally deleted a bunch of emails, and with help from their support I was able to restore them from their backup quickly. Contrast that to Gmail, where thousands of messages suddenly disappeared from the inbox, and the only support option was a…

I've had the same good experience as you. As another datapoint, they really do live up to their name. Everytime I test sending myself emails, I almost always get the email to my fastmail address 30-90 seconds faster then Gmail. Also gmail tends to disapear messages if they're not from a super uber reputable email provider, which sucks sometimes. Fastmail will always deliver my emails if I am playing with a local post…

I sell an app, and people often tell me they can't find their license code anymore. More often than not, these are from Gmail addresses. This may be just because Gmail is popular.

But it's still baffling how Gmails original proposition was that you would always have an archive of all your mail and could search it instantly, yet all these people can't find the email with a license code for an app.

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#163

Post by ymolodtsov »

threatofrain wrote: post #98
vbezhenar wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telegram started to collaborate with Russia and they let it live.

Where did you obtain confidence for this story?

Not an exact confirmation but there was a story about the VP of Telegram meeting with the Russian Prime Minister, which is quite weird considering Durov's notorious anti-political stance.

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#164

Post by tpetry »

deeblering4 wrote: post #79

I highly recommend scheduling a regular mbsync job to keep a local copy of your emails in sync with the imap server. With this it's easy to pick up and move to a different provider or recover from outages, account closure, etc. If you couple this with your own domain your email will be very portable.

But if your primary email provider reports an empty mailbox for the synced mailbox, the backup mailbox will be cleared too?

I mean the idea is great but wouldnt you need a backup mailbox provider allowing you to restore daily snapshots?

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#165

Post by dislore »

93po wrote: post #142
notslow wrote: post #71

Fastmail +1 . I have had an active Fastmail account for at least 20 years. It provides the perfect amount of features for me, without the creepiness.

I wish their notes and calendar were better. I emailed them asking if they were ever going to improve notes, they said no. I've been a customer for 5+ years despite the bad notes

For what it's worth, you can use a dedicated note taking app like Joplin[1] and connect it to Fastmail storage via Webdav [2].

[1] https://joplinapp.org/ [2] https://www.fastmail.com/help/files/davnftp.html

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#166

Post by samhh »

tpetry wrote: post #164
deeblering4 wrote: post #79

I highly recommend scheduling a regular mbsync job to keep a local copy of your emails in sync with the imap server. With this it's easy to pick up and move to a different provider or recover from outages, account closure, etc. If you couple this with your own domain your email will be very portable.

But if your primary email provider reports an empty mailbox for the synced mailbox, the backup mailbox will be cleared too? I mean the idea is great but wouldnt you need a backup mailbox provider allowing you to restore daily snapshots?

I use offlineimap* which allows you to optionally sync in one direction.

I'm not sure what happens if the remote emails are overwritten though.

* https://github.com/samhh/dotfiles/blob/master/home/.config/o...

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#167

Post by JAlexoid »

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #60

>We have made the decision to block signups for all IP addresses we identify as coming from within Russia. We have also removed our app from the Apple and Google app stores for customers in Russia. WTF? Why would you ever do that? You said you have no legal presence in Russia, why f*ck over the users? Instead of ignoring hostile stupidity you're helping it, this is mind boggling. Sorry, I can't "feel good" about your…

They still want their customers to be able to send emails to Russian servers. Having their servers straight up blocked would be annoying at best, disastrous for some users at worst.

Because email isn't like internet, the MXes connect directly and don't typically have intermediary relays.

If Russia decided to straight up block all fastmail MXes - Russian customers wouldn't be able to transmit anything between Russian hosted MXes and Fastmail. So their actions protect their functionality, more than their potential customers.

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#168

Post by JAlexoid »

duxup wrote: post #124
patrakov wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not about compliance (existing accounts are kept, and decision to prevent signups is made purely on the basis of the IP address and not e.g. the country that issued the credit card). It is about avoiding the promised blocking of outgoing mail from Western users of FastMail to Russian users of any other mail provider.

Well compliance and "avoiding the promised blocking" are same at this point.

It's a business decision and I doubt that they made it lightly.

Re: Fastmail accounts blocked in Russia, here's what we know

#169

Post by JAlexoid »

_xnmw wrote: post #104
ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #60

>We have made the decision to block signups for all IP addresses we identify as coming from within Russia. We have also removed our app from the Apple and Google app stores for customers in Russia. WTF? Why would you ever do that? You said you have no legal presence in Russia, why f*ck over the users? Instead of ignoring hostile stupidity you're helping it, this is mind boggling. Sorry, I can't "feel good" about your…

To prevent new users from potentially losing access to the service later on. Why would you sell a mission critical service to a customer you know you cannot support?

I'm in US. I have a few people that I send emails to, who's MX servers are in Russia. I would be extremely annoyed, if I suddenly couldn't contact those people... because Russian "sovereign internet" system blocks my MX.

I would also be annoyed, if my email provider provided access to my data for Russian special services.

All considered - I'd rather that they cut off Russian signups, than either of the other two options.

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