[p2p-research] P2P Email

[M. Fioretti]

On Fri, May 08, 2009 06:17:11 AM -0700, marc fawzi wrote:

> And the idea of True P2P Email is that it would be as simple as
> downloading a client software to your machine

I assume that by "client software" you mean "one single program or
binary file", not a real client in the software sense, as those
require somebody else to be the server. Anyway, the main limit or
lack of justification I see in your proposal so far is the "your
machine" part.

Which of these does "your machine" mean:

1) one's **individual** PDA or laptop/desktop, which is what I infer
   from your previous messages, or

2) a real or virtual computer which belongs to you but is hosted
   remotely, in a datacenter with redundant power and backbone
   connectivity, UPS, 99.999% reliability/uptime etc...

3) something else? Please describe

If what you meant is 2), then it's the same thing I meant and I'm
already doing today, so we go back to the point that the only thing
Ipv6 would really be needed for is numbers of addresses if everybody
wanted to do the same today.

"your machine" need not be one's own home/daily computer. It can be a
rented server in a remote location professionally equipped, that is
something which is at least as reliable as Google, but is under your
control. I had to do this myself:

> install SMTP/POP servers and configure routers, firewalls,

but nothing prevents ISPs (including millions of small ones, ie the
resilient infrastructure) from packaging all that in something that
looks just like your "client software", with a graphical configuration
interface not so harder to figure out than the one of programs like
thunderbird, outlook, eudora, kmail... but runs on a rented machine.

If it's 1)... why? Think Michel's laptop. Having a personal (= the one
you carry with you, keep at home etc... ) cheap computer being the
single point of routing and failure of your communications means that
if it's stolen, drenched with coffee, blasted by electrical charges or
breaks in any other way you're really toast. It means that if you go
for a few days without broadband email to you gets bounced, because
there's no other computer able to store it.

In the best case, it means that you MUST carry that object along with
you every moment of your life, you can't ask a friend "let me check my
email, please" A nightmare.

Marco

-- 
Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how
software is used *around* you:            http://digifreedom.net/node/84