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IRC, UCCP, NNTP Are in various ways all distributed SMTP, HTTP, FTP, Telnet, SSH, SFTP,Finger Are all relatively easy to self-host. and it used to be frequen

IRC, UCCP, NNTP Are in various ways all distributed SMTP, HTTP, FTP, Telnet, SSH, SFTP,Finger Are all relatively easy to self-host. and it used to be frequently done. We have plenty of protocols to use already, and we have had them for a long time, that is not the problem.

california-og 3y ago
Can you explain or give advice on how one would self-host? In my country none of the main ISPs offer static IPs. They're only available to businesses. Self-hosting with a dynamic IP seems difficult if not impossible. There are some dynamic DNS services but that kinda defeats the self-hosted part.
- tenebrisalietum 3y ago
  > Self-hosting with a dynamic IP seems difficult if not impossible You just need something on your network that monitors your IP and updates your DNS when your home IP changes. "Dynamic DNS Update Client" yields results in Google that will be a good start to understanding. > There are some dynamic DNS services but that kinda defeats the self-hosted part. No, selfhosting at home doesn't mean you have to host a public DNS server. You will definitely need some external DNS pointing to your home network. There are multiple free providers.
  - _factor 3y ago
    You will still need a static IP for SMTP. Dynamic IP assignment and NAT traversal are the largest hurdles to self-hosting reliably. DNS updates are great, but then you're still relying on a large centralized DNS provider. You can host nameservers yourself, but then you're back to the Static IP issue.
    - layer8 3y ago
      You have to rely on a registrar for your domain name anyway. For everything else, a cheap VPS with a static IP is easy to manage and can delegate to your homeserver behind the scenes. The VPS also can be easily replaced by a different one when needed just by managing the DNS entries.
    - ThinkBeat 3y ago
      Self hosting SMTP servers is downright impossible these days. The big Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others "fight spam" / competition by black listing little known SMTP servers. If you try to do it from a VPS, they have usually blocked entire segments of the companies IPs. (Because someone, a lot of someones came before you) There are good reasons to right spam. But the efforts of the biggie names are forcing people to use their services. (Its free after all right)
- billpg 3y ago
  I tried this two decades ago. We just had broadband for the first time and I installed some web service application on my Windows PC. My ISP had what appeared to be a static IP so I manually set up a free DNS service with that IP. The experiment didn't last long enough for the IP to change but I did learn it did because long after I took the service down, my domain was pointing to someone else's IP. It what I now realise was a bad idea, I was writing code by web server code using C with CGI. I was supposed to use Perl, but I didn't want to spend time learning that as I already knew C.
- nearlyepic 3y ago
  The best way I've found to get around the DNS problem is to take a cheap VPS (I use Hetzner) and run a reverse proxy like Caddy. Then you VPN that VPS to the machine at your house.

california-og 3y ago

Can you explain or give advice on how one would self-host? In my country none of the main ISPs offer static IPs. They're only available to businesses. Self-hosting with a dynamic IP seems difficult if not impossible. There are some dynamic DNS services but that kinda defeats the self-hosted part.

tenebrisalietum 3y ago
> Self-hosting with a dynamic IP seems difficult if not impossible You just need something on your network that monitors your IP and updates your DNS when your home IP changes. "Dynamic DNS Update Client" yields results in Google that will be a good start to understanding. > There are some dynamic DNS services but that kinda defeats the self-hosted part. No, selfhosting at home doesn't mean you have to host a public DNS server. You will definitely need some external DNS pointing to your home network. There are multiple free providers.
- _factor 3y ago
  You will still need a static IP for SMTP. Dynamic IP assignment and NAT traversal are the largest hurdles to self-hosting reliably. DNS updates are great, but then you're still relying on a large centralized DNS provider. You can host nameservers yourself, but then you're back to the Static IP issue.
  - layer8 3y ago
    You have to rely on a registrar for your domain name anyway. For everything else, a cheap VPS with a static IP is easy to manage and can delegate to your homeserver behind the scenes. The VPS also can be easily replaced by a different one when needed just by managing the DNS entries.
  - ThinkBeat 3y ago
    Self hosting SMTP servers is downright impossible these days. The big Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others "fight spam" / competition by black listing little known SMTP servers. If you try to do it from a VPS, they have usually blocked entire segments of the companies IPs. (Because someone, a lot of someones came before you) There are good reasons to right spam. But the efforts of the biggie names are forcing people to use their services. (Its free after all right)
billpg 3y ago
I tried this two decades ago. We just had broadband for the first time and I installed some web service application on my Windows PC. My ISP had what appeared to be a static IP so I manually set up a free DNS service with that IP. The experiment didn't last long enough for the IP to change but I did learn it did because long after I took the service down, my domain was pointing to someone else's IP. It what I now realise was a bad idea, I was writing code by web server code using C with CGI. I was supposed to use Perl, but I didn't want to spend time learning that as I already knew C.
nearlyepic 3y ago
The best way I've found to get around the DNS problem is to take a cheap VPS (I use Hetzner) and run a reverse proxy like Caddy. Then you VPN that VPS to the machine at your house.