[p2p-research] P2P Email

[M. Fioretti]

(properly trimmed, quoted with standard markers, reformatted in
natural reading order and with attribution restored, out of respect of
future archive readers and other subscribers who may have jumped in
right now, or be confused by the technical details)

On Fri, May 08, 2009 20:00:34 PM -0700, marc fawzi wrote:
> Marco Fioretti wrote:
> > I take this as a confirmation that when you say "p2p mail" you
> > mean:
> >
> >"everybody managing all their incoming and transmitted email
> >directly and exclusively from THEIR OWN PERSONAL COMPUTER, ie the
> >personal laptops, PDAs, whatever... that they always carry with
> >them, or the personal desktop computers they have under their desk
> >at home".
>
> Correct, in the context of my definition of "p2p" which is somewhat
> purist when it comes to the p2p architecture.
>
> However, in that definition I include distribution for redundancy
> and some centralized coordination (that can be distributed too for
> redundancy) so, with respect to the latter, it's not completely
> decentralized.

OK, so this is where the difference and the source of former confusion
is. Let's then restart and sum up a few other things for the benefits of
our readers.

To have a permanent email address, send and receive email with it, a
generic Joe User needs:

1) an email address with a name (left of the @ sign) and a domain part
   (right of the @ sign):  joe.user at somedomain.com

2) one or more computers (physical or VIRTUAL), directly connected
   24x7 to the Internet, with FIXED numeric IP address(es), because IP
   packets are routed to IP addresses, NOT domain names. If the IP
   addresses weren't constant, your email correspondents would never
   know what your address will be next week, ie nothing would work.

3) some software, running on such computer(s) which sends, stores,
   receive email, filters spam, blocks viruses, sends autoresponders
   if needed, etc...

NOTE: 2) and 3) together are, or should include, what is called a Mail
eXchange (MX), that is Joe User "email management and routing system".

4) an entry into the worldwide Domain Name System telling everybody
   worldwide that the MX for somedomain.com runs at the constant IP
   address(es) mentioned in 2). Without this mapping, NOTHING works,
   because IP packets are routed to IP addresses, NOT domain names.

this is the way it works today, and I'm focusing on this. Futuristic
visions are good, but something else and a whole different thread, at
least for me here and now.

Now, let's look again at points 1-4 above. What happens today is that
points 2-4 are centrally managed by corporations, who own the domain
part of the address (gmail, yahoo, everybody else) and provide the
service for money, advertising, etc... or as a business tool in the
case of work email addresses.

Here we all agree that this is bad: privacy concerns, lack of
robustness, lack of flexibility, non standard configurations, no
rights to change the terms of services, etc...

Starting from this common ground, Marc Fawzi says IPv6 will make p2p
email as defined above possible, because it will make available enough
static IP addresses that every individual will be able to do points
2-4 directly without technical complications impossible to avoid today.

In this vision, everybody will be able to associate to his static IPv6
address to his own personal computers and run on those personal
computers a new generation of email software integrating all I listed
in 3) and then some, without intermediaries.

All the comments from Marc about NAT, bypassing firewalls etc... that
should disappear with the switch from IPv4 to IPv6 come from the fact
that:

*) he suggests or envisions that people could and should use their
   everyday (mobile) computers for point 2

*) but (and he's right on this) with IPv4 (today) these computers are
   routinely assigned "bogus" IP addresses which are very hard, or
   impossible, to make them "look" as static, ie suitable for email
   routing. In other words, with IPv4 it's impossible to run your
   email from your own personal computer. I agree on this, of course.

Now, I agree that everybody taking full control of their own email
management is definitely a good thing. What I say is simply:

a) running the system on one's home or mobile computers, rather than
   buying/renting for this very purpose a virtual server in a reliable
   datacenter is such a bad idea for so many technical and other
   reasons from social to environmental, reasons which DON'T change at
   all whatever version of IP is used, that I don't think I'll ever do
   it myself, nor I recommend it to anybody who uses email for more
   than casual chat.

b) developing new software which would overcome all the problems
   created by using a cheap laptop as MX, and be simple to use is a
   very big task

c) points 2-4 can be already done by individuals with IPv4 and
   existing software today. They're exactly what I, an individual, am
   already doing. What is missing to make worldwide p2p email is
   "only":

      - laws that don't make this illegal or affordable only by big
        corporations, maybe an ICANN reform
      - ISPs selling "individual MX virtual servers" with a GUI which
        spares non geeks from all the manual configuration work I had
        to do by hand. No need for more server or client software,
        what exists is adequate, even if it should always be improved
      - enough IP addresses for everybody to have one to associate to
        their "individual MX virtual server" package.

but last point is exactly the first thing I said yesterday: the only
reason I see why IPv6 should ever enter this picture is to have enough
numeric fixed addresses. Because every other problem caused by IPv4,
that is getting rid of NAT, working through ISPs or corporate
firewalls,etc... is true but irrelevant compared to the cons of
running a server from a personal computer. As I wrote yesterday:

> 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.

theoretically yes, one could introduce new protocols to add
redundancy, security and robustness to such a scenario, or,
individually, buy server-class hardware, UPS for backup power,
subscribe to two or more ISPs for redundant connectivity, that is
spend 10x or more each month than a virtual server costs. But why?

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