U.S User, Server Location

🗃️ Hosting providers
#1

I am looking to sign up with a NextCloud provider to host and manage my NextCloud but I live in the US which isn’t known for its stance on privacy. I wondered if I would see a degradation of service if I use a server in the EU or should I just stick with a server that is closer to my location and cross my fingers?

I imagine there would be more lag if the server is farther from me but would that lag outweigh the usefulness of NextCloud? I plan to use NextCloud as part of a backup and syncing strategy and wouldn’t need constant read and writes to the server.

Anyone with an opinion one way or the other on where my server’s location should be?

#2

You can search a Nextcloud Hoster and ask for a test account.

#3

i think hosting it in your own house would be an option as well (maybe the best in terms of owning your own data)

plus you could put a bit of thought into server-side encryption (which is possible with nc) so that noone on (us?) hoster-side could work with your data… (though it wouldn’t be secure for 100% - but as those problems would apply to every hoster in the world, it wouldn’t make any difference)

#4

I have considered that as an option @JimmyKater but at least right now I don’t want to spend the time needed to get everything working and maintained. I am primarily concerned with getting my data out of the clouds of big tech who just mine it for their own benefit.

I mainly wanted to know if anyone else in the US hosts their servers in the EU and if it makes a notable difference in performance.

#5

like @JABAHOSTING said… you could try a test account.

though once again: maybe you wanna get yourself a raspberry-hardware (3 recommended) and install nextcloudpi to it. that’s fast and pretty smooth. and you’d own your own data completely.

#6

Aren’t there any providers in the US?

For the speed, latency for file transfer is less critical. I’d check if the providers (your ISP and the Nextcloud hoster have a good interconnection). For some providers it can be great, for others not at all, so test it and if you subscribe, do it on a short term first.

It’s 0% secure if your NC-hoster is really interested in your data. It adds a lot of complexity to the system, you have to carefully think through backups, restores and updates. And if something goes wrong and you are not the admin of your system, it will be very difficult.
If you want to protect, use client-side encryption. The NC-implementation is not fully supported by all clients yet (desktop), so at the moment I’d rely on other solutions until the final versions have been released and were tested properly.

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