Can anybody explain why they want me to buy a 500$ piece of hardware? Can the same result not be achieved with a Raspberry Pi and any self-hosted open-source mail server? Why is this not simply a download?
Because Silly Valley.
Helm: Personal Email Server
291–300 of 592 posts
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is the biggest problem. If there are a lot of bad actors, you drag down the whole system, but if you try to prevent bad actors you run into a lot of issues. A hard problem, and I don't envy anyone trying to solve it.
No offense, but given that you are making a product that has a much higher potential to enable bad actors than usual, isn't it kind of you/your company's job to try to solve it? EDIT: Just realized I responded to the wrong person :(
No, it's not. In fact it's your job to try and police yourself. But you probably on someone else to control you don't you?
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#293I 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'm the first and biggest investor in Helm and I'm on the board. I created email-based Posterous previously (YC funded) and was a YC partner for 5 years. I funded this team because they're high integrity software engineers first, and we built this out of need— a company like this needs to exist because for this to work, you need both great user experience as well as great software. Helm actually solves this exactly -…
> I funded this team because they're high integrity software engineers first, and we built this out of need
I looked for the founders bio, a company contact info. There is nothing on their site. All I saw was a letter in the "About" section by the founder.
You might have gotten to know these guys after various meetings and due diligence process. There is nothing on their website that sells me on trusting them or the company.
I had to go the "Careers" section to see the location of the company.
When you're in the business of selling trust, you really need to focus on selling trust first and not technology (maybe they're connected ultimately) but I just don't feel I can trust this company based on the materials provided on their website.
Hope this feedback is meaningful.
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
AT&T in the midwest US just blocked port 25 a few months ago. My nightly e-mails for system updates stopped coming in, and now I either have to shuttle them through an authenticated submission port or pump them over a VPN to my e-mail server. :-/
Assuming you control both sides, which sounds like you do, just run it on a different port in addition to 25.
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#295If your were real men you'd give it away for free and find a way to monetize your audience through a a value proposition that exceeds what it seems you've done. Cute marketing site but that's kinda lame yo.
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
No offense, but given that you are making a product that has a much higher potential to enable bad actors than usual, isn't it kind of you/your company's job to try to solve it? EDIT: Just realized I responded to the wrong person :(
No, it's not. In fact it's your job to try and police yourself. But you probably on someone else to control you don't you?
I mean, my thought is that if a high volume of spam causes other email servers to block Helm, then it makes it unusable to the good actors in the system. I didn't see the CEO address this.
Or, maybe I just misunderstand smtp idk
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#297The stackable expansion is a really nice idea.
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it's not. In fact it's your job to try and police yourself. But you probably on someone else to control you don't you?
I mean, my thought is that if a high volume of spam causes other email servers to block Helm, then it makes it unusable to the good actors in the system. I didn't see the CEO address this. Or, maybe I just misunderstand smtp idk
Yeah, that's how I understand the issue too. I don't think there's an easy way to do things, either you end up blocking some people with a legitimate use case or you end up becoming a spam farm.
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this is the biggest problem. If there are a lot of bad actors, you drag down the whole system, but if you try to prevent bad actors you run into a lot of issues. A hard problem, and I don't envy anyone trying to solve it.
No offense, but given that you are making a product that has a much higher potential to enable bad actors than usual, isn't it kind of you/your company's job to try to solve it? EDIT: Just realized I responded to the wrong person :(
The person you are replying too isn't the CEO. Just another new user (that's why the username is in green).
Re: Helm: Personal Email Server
#300Mh, not much convinced. I'm a fan of the idea of personal home server and I have built myself one having find a ISP that offer static IPv4 and v6 addresses with a reasonable price; for end-users I also understand the opportunity and need of pre-built appliance since they may understand actual sorry state of tech evolution but may not have enough knowledge to act autonomously but... Well your appliance seems to be too ridden by "modern design" I personally call it catastrophic.