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...
