The experiment is over.
For years I ran my own Internet servers — mail, DNS, mailing list, Jabber, etc. — and today is the day that I shut that down.
It turns out that it’s something I absolutely can do, so that’s good to know, but also something it takes time and effort to do right, something I do not have.
I shared my server with some friends who have over the past year or so moved onto their own servers, so that’s good. Then it was just my wife and I and a mailing list for some friends. Well, one of them offered to take the list off to Google Groups, leaving me with my own mail. So I signed up for a Google Apps account for my domains and one for the wife’s. That gives us private domain Gmail, Gtalk (Jabber), and other things, all free. Then I moved DNS to Namecheap’s very awesome FreeDNS service (since EveryDNS just got bought and will likely be made into a profit center).
So, later today I’ll do a final backup of Rhea and then kill it off, after I finish moving all the mail off it. Sucks, sure, but life will be cheaper and easier for it.
