Why I migrated again
Hey everyone. Klebs here and today, I’ll explain why I moved to a different host yet again despite things going well.
The old system
I used to have a subscription with a VPS (virtual private server) provider located outside my home country. By using a VPN (virtual private network) server that I installed myself, I was able to surf the web without worrying about my activity being monitored by my ISP (Internet service provider) while also giving the impression I’m located elsewhere. I normally use the Tor browser to anonymously visit websites that don’t require accounts such as news sites and blogs but going through VPN tunnels has its benefits as well especially when download speed is important, a website blocks Tor users or when I just don’t feel like going through multiple Captchas. If everything works, why change at all?
A VPS close to home
Whenever I visit a multilingual website like an online store, the page is displayed in the language of the country where my VPN server is installed and even the country and currency are selected based solely on its current location. For example, let’s say I live in Australia and my VPN is located in Japan, going to an online store would land me in a Japanese home page with a list of brick-and-mortar stores in Japan and prices displayed in yen. I would then go through the same routine (switch to English, choose Australia and Australian dollars) every single time and while I don’t mind that, my family and friends feel differently. That’s why I moved to a VPS provider located in my home country.
A VPS far from home
Migrating from one VPS to another may be straightforward but why then bother getting a 2nd VPS? During my never-ending quest to find a life free from Big Brother-type surveillance, I discovered SimpleLogin, an email aliasing service that allows to you have multiple email addresses that forward every single message to one inbox known only to me. This video from “402 Payment Required” has also greatly helped me host my own SimpleLogin instance.
However, I wasn’t keen on putting both my blog and SimpleLogin instance on the same VPS so I got another one. Besides, having two VPS means having two VPN: one locally and one far away. It would then make sense to keep my current subscription and just get another one located in my home country. That’s what I would’ve done if my current VPS wasn’t located in a country that’s part of a surveillance group of 14 countries sharing intelligence known as “Fourteen Eyes”. The countries are:
- Australia
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- United States
At this stage, if I have to use a VPN located in a country linked to the “Fourteen Eyes”, might as well be one near home. That’s why for my 2nd VPS, I went for a provider located outside the jurisdiction of the “Fourteen Eyes”.
How to contact me now
In my last blog post, I said I had to shut down my email server. Since my new provider blocks the port 25 and the other already hosts SimpleLogin, I decided to get another email address. I can now be reached here and on Mastodon.
While I still like to talk about Linux gaming and the MiSTer FPGA project, I’d like to talk more about cybersecurity and online privacy as well. If you like what I do and would like to support me, please consider donating Monero or Bitcoin. You can also use this affiliate link if you plan to buy games, books or more on Humble Bundle.
Thanks for reading and I’ll talk to you soon. Laters.