Does anyone host #Matrix or #Riot on their own server? I feel this would be a great fallback for private #messaging, especially among family/friends (having full control of data, compared to, say, #Signal, which is centralised).
I also (still) want to try out #Session, but the same old issue makes it difficult: network effect. I proposed trying it with some of my family (now finally on Signal). I got no response. I could almost hear them thinking, "Jeez, not again!"
@syntax another alternative is XMPP which is nice and easy to host yourself
@dsvdv Thanks, I keep hearing about that but have never thought to look into it...
@syntax I host mine with https://prosody.im which is easy to setup and easy to use :)
@dsvdv Out of interest, what would you say are the main benefits of using Prosody (and/or XMPP in general) over other solutions like Signal, Riot etc.? I just want to weigh up the pros and cons of each...
@syntax with people I know IRL I try to use signal as much as possible, downsides there is it needs your phone number and is centralized as you said
@dsvdv
That's a downside indeed, although I understand they're working on a solution which won't require numbers. You mentioned XMPP encryption - is E2E possible or is that just at-rest data being encrypted on the server?
@syntax yup its e2ee. another thing I forgot is that XMPP also have support for voice and video chat
@dsvdv
Yeah I got everything set up for Prosody on one of my VPSs, but after trying to connect through the Conversations app from F-Droid, it says "Server not found", so obviously something with my setup isn't correct. But I followed this video tutorial... https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=-0M0NeZ_cU4
@syntax does the logs say anything useful? and what does 'sudo prosodyctl status' give u? im not an expert, i just got my instance up and running and didnt do much more after that.
@dsvdv I think it's a DNS records issue. After running 'sudo prosodyctl check', it returns (among other messages) "Host conference.(mydomain) does not seem to resolve to this server (IPv4/IPv6) [...] Host xmpp.(domain).(domain) does not seem to resolve to this server". DNS records are unfamiliar territory for me...
@syntax did you point those subdomains to the right ip?
@dsvdv I definitely used the correct IP address. I can't see any difference in how I've set up the records compared to how it's explained in Prosody's docs and the video I watched...
@syntax i didnt use any subdomains at all, i just pointed my domain to the ip of my vps and it worked, but using a subdomain shouldnt be an issue. the video is 4 years old, so things could have changed. i cant remember that i made any srv och txt-record tho
@dsvdv Yeah I'm quite sure what the problem is, though I suspect it has something to do with the fact I have a Nextcloud instance using the same domain...
@syntax if the nextcloud instance isnt running on the same subdomain that shouldnt be a problem
@dsvdv OK, I'll try removing the srv records then. I can't think of anything else I could try
@syntax since im no expert and have no idea what the issue might be, try ask in their chat https://chat.prosody.im :)
@dsvdv Finally got it working. I've been able to log into Conversations app with "test" user for my server. I think the issue was I put the SRV records in slightly differently. Just need to test everything now...
@syntax I heard something about that, if signal makes that possible ill be really happy :)
@syntax I've never hosted matrix myself, but I've heard its a pain to host and needs more recources. XMPP is pretty light and is really easy to setup. I guess I prefer XMPP 1-1 and matrix is a bit nicer with group chats imo. matrix feels a bit more up to date when it comes to UI, but with that said I've only used it with riot and riotx and XMPP with gajim and conversations.
I've never tried the encryption with matrix. with XMPP its easy to encrypt chats with OMEMO.