[RndTbl] Is there an Muug like community based appetite for alternative to USB3 to Ethernet, to make NAS

[Trevor Cordes]

On 2023-02-09 eh at eduardhiebert.com wrote:
> Wondering what interest there might be in doing another variant on a 
> Muug type project but specific to creating a Muug type back-up
> service and mirrored for increased saftey.   One system with huge
> memory would be but a tiny fraction of many of us doing our own.  I'm
> not suggesting our people with know how do this as a labour of love
> but as a kind of community minded coop.

It's not a bad idea, but there are a couple of sticking points that
make it a bit tough for MUUG:

1. Liability for what members put on it.  What if they put naughty
stuff?  Not sure tiny MUUG would get the same protection the big
providers do.  Even if ultimately protected, any legal fight alone would
be disaster.

2. Liability if we lose the data.

3. Liability if the server gets hacked and data is leaked.

4. Trust and need-to-know access levels on the server for board members
(the admins).

5. Hard to police that only members are using it.  (Pw sharing, etc.)

6. Don't want to irk Les.

On the pro side, we do have decent space left still, and it would make
a nice benefit for members.  My guess is it's not going to happen,
unless lawyers and govs cease to exist tomorrow. :-)  But we will
certainly discuss it at a board meeting as a member suggestion.

On 2023-02-10 Adam Thompson wrote:
> The last time I ran the numbers for my own reasons (last year), what
> I pay Backblaze ~$10/mo for would cost roughly ~$200/month for a
> local operation, if operated on a "hobby" scale.  That's not a typo:
> scale allows them to reduce total end-user costs by 20-fold and still
> (presumably) make a profit.  Even more extreme ratios apply to public
> or private cloud hosting.

Well, my personal business has run a backup service for local people /
businesses for 22 years.  And I do it for gobs under $200/mo.  But yes,
it's over $10 mo: then again it's a service, not a DIY self-managed
cloud thing, and includes a free managed firewall/router setup (minus
hardware)!  My point is, there are affordable options that still keep
your data out of Silicon Valley/NSA, even if you don't want to DIY.

If someone wanted to do the same idea as a co-op thing, maybe that
could work.  It might better fit a venue like Skullspace though?

> If encrypting your data locally and only then uploading it doesn't
> meet your privacy requirements, you probably shouldn't be connected
> to the internet at all...  Also, see Tarsnap, an online backup
> service for the EXTREMELY privacy-conscious.

Ah, you're assuming SSL and <insert gov-endorsed encryption alg here>
don't all have NSA backdoors.  You're not thinking like a paranoid,
Adam! ;-)

Personally, my own data is on RAID-6 and is backed-up periodically to
encrypted optical media and stored off-site using my own custom
software.  I consider my data very safe, as it would take a volcano
sprouting at Portage & Main or a nuke of all of the Wpg area to hose my
data.  :-)