Alternative, privacy focused email providers similar to Gmail and 'promotional' mail

[Coja Petrus Uscan]

I've just set up my own private email server because I want to get rid of my gmail. I'm pretty new at this though, so I really don't know what I'm doing. I used the following tutorial to do it, using a script provided in it to set my email server up:

I flicked through. I see he provides the setup for DKIM and SPF. I can't see he tested them. You can test to see if they are setup correctly:

Tools - mail-tester.com

SPF record and DKIM check

www.mail-tester.com

A downside of your own mail server is they seem to be more prone to having their emails go into spam anyway. I've even had reports of DKIM and SPF failure, even though it is valid. I don't know why that is.

You also don't want to run torrents on there or anything else that would get the IP put on blacklists.

 

[Bird]

Will you also create email accounts for your corespondents?
And will you also use email encryption? In that case every corespondent needs to set it up.
This will be necessary if your measures are to be effective.

If you wants relative assurance in private communications you need two people communicating via Matrix/Element

This is still the easiest way to establish private communications.

 

[skullmask]

I flicked through. I see he provides the setup for DKIM and SPF. I can't see he tested them. You can test to see if they are setup correctly:

Tools - mail-tester.com

SPF record and DKIM check

www.mail-tester.com

A downside of your own mail server is they seem to be more prone to having their emails go into spam anyway. I've even had reports of DKIM and SPF failure, even though it is valid. I don't know why that is.

You also don't want to run torrents on there or anything else that would get the IP put on blacklists.

I did a check with mail tester, and the only thing I failed was the rDNS part. So I made a correction in my server settings and will test again later. One thing I'd like to do is dig in deeper, and find out just what the script I ran to set it all up does. I really don't understand how it all works. I looked around in my email directories, it looks like the server as set up saves the emails on the server, and does not delete them after delivering them to my email client. I wonder how easy it is to change that, and if it's possible to set it on a user account basis.

 

[Coja Petrus Uscan]

I looked around in my email directories, it looks like the server as set up saves the emails on the server, and does not delete them after delivering them to my email client. I wonder how easy it is to change that, and if it's possible to set it on a user account basis.

This is done in communication with the email client. If you use Thunderbird:

Thunderbird, IMAP, Expunge or How to Really Delete Emails from the Server

IMAP plays hide-and-seek with emails, but there's a solution

news.softpedia.com

I think for Evolution email it is in the general account settings.

 

[skullmask]

This is done in communication with the email client. If you use Thunderbird:

Thunderbird, IMAP, Expunge or How to Really Delete Emails from the Server

IMAP plays hide-and-seek with emails, but there's a solution

news.softpedia.com

I think for Evolution email it is in the general account settings.

Thanks for the pointer. I've got it set now that when I delete an email it deletes immediately from the server as well.

 

[aynrus]

I'm not in a position to run own email server right now.

Is there a free email service provider that doesn't block you/demand phone/text if they detect a login from new IP?

Protonmail, mailfence, tutanota, etc-privacy email services won't work as they're mostly blocked in countries where I need to be,
so I'm simply looking for regular mainstream free email service that isn't paranoid about IPs.

 

[skullmask]

I'm not in a position to run own email server right now.

Is there a free email service provider that doesn't block you/demand phone/text if they detect a login from new IP?

Protonmail, mailfence, tutanota, etc-privacy email services won't work as they're mostly blocked in countries where I need to be,
so I'm simply looking for regular mainstream free email service that isn't paranoid about IPs.

I don't know of any free email services like that. Email is not a charity; if you are not paying for the service someone else is paying for it, and that someone else is getting something out of it, most likely your data.

 

[aynrus]

I don't know of any free email services like that. Email is not a charity; if you are not paying for the service someone else is paying for it, and that someone else is getting something out of it, most likely your data.

I'm certainly not going to pay for email. Haven't done it in 25 years and don't plan to.
Email should be free, protonmail has free service just blocked in some countries

I don't care if they mine my data/that's fine, just need a free service that does not block/requires text due to new IP, that's all I asked about above. I do not want privacy emails as they'll be blocked where I go to. Does yahoo, mail.com, microsoft ever block due to new IP?

 

[Bird]

I'm not in a position to run own email server right now.

Is there a free email service provider that doesn't block you/demand phone/text if they detect a login from new IP?

Protonmail, mailfence, tutanota, etc-privacy email services won't work as they're mostly blocked in countries where I need to be,
so I'm simply looking for regular mainstream free email service that isn't paranoid about IPs.

Give it try

• Plenty of storage space with 65GB
• Send attachments up to 50MB in size
• Bonus features like Online Office and Organizer

https://www.gmx.com/mail

It does not work with TOR but VPN is fine, in case you use such services.

 

[aynrus]

Give it try

• Plenty of storage space with 65GB
• Send attachments up to 50MB in size
• Bonus features like Online Office and Organizer

https://www.gmx.com/mail

It does not work with TOR but VPN is fine, in case you use such services.

Huh, I tried to create an account but it said "techincal problems, try again later". Seems like errors happen at early stage even, when you try to create new username and use check to see if it's already taken - it gives numerical error code for any kind of string entered on my side.

I need something reliable/established to be able to use with financial services, something that won't bail on me and won't cause foreign governments to nix them for being "too private". Don't see any references to mail.com blocking users for "new device" (unlike gmail that I've been using so far).
GMX and mail.com seem to be using identical-looking sign-up page....may be they're owned by the same entity....both don't even allow me to sign up, and I'm not on vpn and using US IP.

 

[aynrus]

What actually happens with GMX (which seems to be the same as mail.com) is it does create an account for you but instead of confirmation gives an error message on the final page. However you can log into that account and it's active. The subsequent errors when you try to create a new/another account with gmx or mail.com happen because it already created 1 account and thinks you're trying to create more accounts (which is probably not allowed within certain period of time).

So far I was able to create outlook and gmx accounts without giving them my phone number.
I turned on opera vpn then and was able to log into outlook but GMX won't allow me to login while on vpn.

 

[Stadtaffe]

I found this one https://cock.li/ you can pay with bitcoin but don't think I'll be signing up.. Say if anyone has experience with it.

 

[HKBhusal]

For regular email I've had good success with startmail

https://www.startmail.com/en/.

It is a pay for service.

Also, for rapid fire ongoing communication between friends I use Wickr Pro.

Wickr Pro

Unlike other video conferencing and collaboration platforms, Wickr Pro is end-to-end encrypted and built to scale for any Enterprise.

wickr.com

It's free, you can do video/voice calls on it. End-to-end encryption (assuming no backdoor options like with signal for deepstate). It has a burn time on all correspondence (deletes after a certain period of time that you can adjust).

 

[Bird]

I found this one https://cock.li/ you can pay with bitcoin but don't think I'll be signing up.. Say if anyone has experience with it.

No experience, but just take a look at the wired domain names they offer.
I wouldn't register with them.

 

[Bird]

@aynrus

I'm using GMX.com since ten years or so and I haven't experienced any troubles so far with mostly using European IPs.

 

[aynrus]

Apparently, there's banning of services like protonmail going on in the States too.

@aynrus

I'm using GMX.com since ten years or so and I haven't experienced any troubles so far with mostly using European IPs.

It's rejecting Opera VPN. My future IPs won't be in the NATO-friendly zone, so my guess won't be welcome if they don't even welcome basic and popular Opera VPN (which gmail has no problem with), and I did try both Asia and Europe servers.

EDIT: interesting - today I was able to login into new gmx account using Opera VPN Asia server.
After that, I logged out and changed VPN server to Europe - and can't login anymore.
So, I quit the browser (without clearing cookies) and restarted it - I was able to login using Europe Opera VPN server.
They seem to be limiting IP changes per session to 0 and use certain way to manage sessions/persisting through logout but not through browser restart - and not adverse to Opera VPN per se.
Will see if they shut this account down for "unusual activity" or something, hope not.

 

[Bird]

Earlier I tried to register a new account but failed, despite using US and UK IP addresses and different browsers.

I connect my mailbox 99,9% via POP3/SMTP and on some days I have access with different IPs and it never was a problem so far.

But good to know that they are monitoring it some way.

 

[aynrus]

Earlier I tried to register a new account but failed, despite using US and UK IP addresses and different browsers.

I connect my mailbox 99,9% via POP3/SMTP and on some days I have access with different IPs and it never was a problem so far.

But good to know that they are monitoring it some way.

You can't register new account with gmx? - were you using VPN?
I was just able to register 2nd account today, using the same US IP I registered from yesterday and no phone number.
See my post above, sometimes they make it look like account creation failed but account is there and usable, and then when you re-try you get more errors, because I think they limit to creating 1 account per day

 

[godfather dust]

Living in a 5 Eyes country I don't expect to have complete privacy or to evade government spying apparatus. I just do my best to stay off the radar of the police (don't use social media) and make Leftist doxxing as difficult as possible. In the UK if we wanted complete messaging privacy we'd probably need to use carrier pigeons.

Agree.

I use protonmail under the assumption I am not interesting enough to have active attempts to monitor myself specifically.

However if the government was actually after someone it would be best for them to avoid electronic communication entirely.

The most secure way to use a computer is going to take more effort than signing up for a better email service than gmail. Tails OS (if that is still a thing) on a laptop bought with cash, using public WiFi and a VPN, TOR and PGP encryption would probably be a decent start

 

[Bird]

You can't register new account with gmx? - were you using VPN?
I was just able to register 2nd account today, using the same US IP I registered from yesterday and no phone number.
See my post above, sometimes they make it look like account creation failed but account is there and usable, and then when you re-try you get more errors, because I think they limit to creating 1 account per day

That's wired.
I will try it once again if LinuxMint 20.1 English version is installed.

But with 10 aliases available, one account is enough for me.

The IP stuff was only relevant while doing the sign up. Later on they didn't care anymore, but I registered with them 10 years ago.