After my recent endeavors setting up an IRC server I thought about following up with XMPP / Jabber. While use cases might be similar, XMPP does have the advantage of a more varied and extensible protocol. In addition, XMPP federates (which IRC does not although it's possible to run networks of connected servers).

When looking at options I narrowed down the list to either @prosodyim or @ejabberd . The latter is readily available on my #FreedomBox, so it would have been the obvious choice. But I wanted to run the server on my VPS instead, and Prosody has a reputation to be easy to set up.

Following the extensive documentation, it was quite easy to configure everything to my needs. And similar to ergo IRCd before I was able to re-use my existing LetsEncrypt certificates to make SSL work.

As I wanted to ideally have access from everywhere with a browser and a network connection, I also set up ConverseJS as web client. Aside from that I am happily using Conversations on mobile, and Pidgin on my desktop, just like in the old days.

All in all I am quite happy with it. Now I need to convince more people to join the XMPP network and build up a decentralized web of communications.

#SelfHosting #Chat #XMPP #Jabber

Post by Axel Knauf, @id@fedi.4x31.dev

I wanted to set up a selfhosted chat solution for a friend an me. Our requirements were: * lightweight (only 2 users) & easy to maintain * production-ready & professionally secure (TLS) * must have web-based interface or client There are plenty of op…

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