Like many people, I recently have been re-discovering the XMPP messaging protocol and ended up running my own server. In fact, this blog is essentially a result of that effort, though it functions independently from the XMPP service.

This is a guide to set up a modern XMPP server focused on security and mobile messaging. The whole guide assumes Debian stable running on the server, the fact that you will end up hosting a few of your friends and that you have some basic skills working on a linux command line. Please note that if you’ve followed this guide in the past you might need to have a look at the update considerations

I've published a new HOWTO on my website:

Enrico already wrote about the Why (and the What, Who and When), so I'll just quote his conclusion and move on to the How.

I now have an XMPP setup which has all the features of the recent fancy chat systems, and on top of that it runs, client and server, on Free Software, which can be audited, it is federated and I can self-host my own server in my own VPS if I want to, with packages supported in Debian.