this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2021
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I haven't hosted my own matrix server yet. is it safe to join an instance? I don't really know how private that would be. the question is when I signup/login would I be giving out my IP? is the metadata private? sorry for asking this, I'm just a bit paranoid

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

Only if you self-host and the other person is also using an account on your server (or another trusted server).

Edit: also note that Synapse has pretty hefty system requirements and the database quickly grows using many gigabytes of data.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (3 children)

I'll have to make sure IRLs talk to me within or with their own servers. for online users I shouldn't worry that much. is there a good matrix client for multiple accounts? I'm kind of leading a double life.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 years ago (1 children)

Mirage supports multiple accounts. It's still in alpha but worth keeping an eye on. Most features work (including E2EE), but a couple are missing (emoji reactions aren't shown/usable, and if someone edits a message it is instead shown as a new message).
Fractal currently does not support E2EE or multiple accounts, but E2EE is coming in their new branch (Fractal-next) and multiple accounts are on their to-do.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

because element is the most complete with features. only needs to implement TOR and Multiple accounts. and then I'm sold. for privacy and simplicity, I'll just use xmpp

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 years ago (3 children)

I am not aware of one. But why not XMPP? Is is easier to self-host, works nicely over Tor and most clients have multi-account support. It also produces much less metadata and usually does not store it longer than necessary.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

you have a point there... maybe I should just use XMPP+Mumble server for voIP. I'll avoid matrix as for now as long as it has many privacy holes. and I already know how to use XMPP over tor which is convenient.

how is XMPP's end-to-end encryption though, I heard alot of varying opinions on that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

For me e2ee on XMPP with OMEMO works fine, never had problems with it. But I guess your best experience will be if both sides use the Conversations client on Android.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

What would be a good way to host your own XMPP server for messaging and video? I tried setting up ejabbert but didn't get it to work for video... setting up a synapse server on the other hand was easier.

Any other options? Or good ejabbert guides for that matter?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 years ago

You set up both synapse and jitsi-meet? Because Matrix does not natively support video at all and simply uses the XMPP based Jitsi-meet for it. Also did you setup your own identity service for Synapse? Because without both, you didn't really self-host matrix :p

In general though, getting video to work with STUN/TURN is a bit more involved. But this is a general issue and also happens if you self-host video support with Matrix.

But you might have better luck with https://snikket.org/ which tries to include everything and is based on Prosody.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (2 children)

How is XMPP compared with SIP+SIMPLE in that?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

Could you explain a bit better what you mean? SIMPLE might be somewhat comparable purely as a protocol, but for all practical purposes is isn't comparable to XMPP as there are no good clients and no federated network.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

There is federated network and good client. Linphone is an example. Jitsi (not Jitsi Meet) is other.

You can send messages to any SIP account using SIMPLE.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (2 children)

Weeeelll, technically. But there is no where near the same ecosystem as for XMPP. Also I don't think there is e2ee for SIMPLE.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 children)

Every business here use SIP-Phones (calls only though), mostly with propietary implementations but is something very extended at business and institutions level.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

Yes I am aware that there are a lot of SIP phones, but are you seriously comparing that to XMPP? That is like saying WhatsApp is the same as snail-mail :p

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

Jejejejejeje.

BTW, LIME is specific from Linphone though.

https://wiki.linphone.org/xwiki/wiki/public/view/Lib/Features/LIME/

I make the comparison because they don't add modifications to the protocol itself. These closed networks use to be compatible with any SIP public infraestructure in comparison what people do with XMPP which even being connected, there could be a lot of incompatible things.

I consider SIP and SIMPLE simplicity a feature in comparison with other protocols.

BTW, SIP can be used P2P as well as SIMPLE. If I remember use to be mostly that with STUN help and a SIP Proxy Server for registering users and notifications.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

There is, it is called LIME.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

XMPP does calls as well: https://blog.wirelessmoves.com/2020/05/xmpp-voice-and-video-calls-with-conversations-a-dream-come-true.html

You could also combine an XMPP server you manage with something like Asterisk to then allow your XMPP clients to do SIP calls through that, though that is a bit involved.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago (1 children)

The XMPP calls are set in Jingle XEPs. AFAIK, there are big stability issues even with the XEPs for STUN/TURN discovery.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

Your experience may vary, but on my personal XMPP server with it's own STUN/TURN server using conversations.im - calls pretty much Just Work (edit: I've only tried a call with a siskin client outside of conversations and that worked too).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 years ago

is there a good matrix client for multiple accounts?

Take a look at this link: https://matrix.org/clients-matrix/

It has a comparison of clients features at the bottom. Some of them allow multiple accounts. Not all clients support E2EE tho.