uucpmail.de

E-mail over UUCP-over-SSH. Offline-first, like the old days – just safer. · Deutsch

What is this?

uucpmail.de connects your machine to modern internet e-mail via classic UUCP. Your system fetches mail whenever you decide – over an SSH-secured UUCP connection. No IMAP, no webmail, no permanent connection. Great for retro computing, tinkering projects, sites with poor connectivity, or anyone who likes to think of mail as batch transfer again.

OfferBETA

Free Tier

€0 during the beta

1 account, your own address you@uucpmail.de
50 MB mailbox queue on the server
up to 250 messages in the queue
max. 10 MB per message
unfetched mail is kept for 30 days
UUCP-over-SSH access (public key only)
spam filtering & DKIM-signed outbound mail

Beta notice: this service is an experiment in test operation – no availability guarantees and, to the extent permitted by law, no liability for data loss or delayed delivery. Please do not use it for important or time-critical communication. Details in the beta terms. During the beta this free tier is the only offering.

Client

For a quick start there is the native uucpmail client (open source, Apache 2.0): a single binary, no uucico and no OpenSSH required. It speaks UUCP-over-SSH itself, generates your SSH key on first start (public-key export at the click of a button for the sign-up mail) and comes with native OpenPGP (PGP/MIME), an address book, encrypted identity backups and a German/English interface.

Prebuilt downloads for Linux (amd64), Windows (amd64) and macOS (Apple Silicon); source and docs in the GitHub repository. macOS Intel via self-build (go install github.com/cfluegel/uucpmail-client/cmd/uucpmail-client@latest). The classic route with Taylor UUCP and Postfix works just as well – see getting started. Both lead to the same access; pick whichever you prefer.

Join the beta

Send an e-mail with a few words about your setup and your SSH public key (ed25519) to beta@uucpmail.de. The client generates the key for you on first start (export at the click of a button) – or create it manually with ssh-keygen (below). By signing up you accept the beta terms. You will receive your UUCP node name and access details in reply.

Optionally, tell us your preferred address: the local part before the @, e.g. alice → alice@uucpmail.de. Allowed are lowercase letters, digits and . _ + = -, starting with a letter or digit. During the beta we honour wishes where possible (subject to availability, no guarantee; role addresses like postmaster or abuse are excluded) – otherwise we assign an address for you.

$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/uucpmail
$ cat ~/.ssh/uucpmail.pub   # include this key

Tech

Taylor UUCP over SSH (protocol t), delivery via rmail, sending from your local MTA via uux. Works with stock Taylor UUCP on any Unix – see the step-by-step getting-started guide (including Postfix integration). The ready-made cross-platform client is above under Client and on GitHub.