Hello community,

To break an unhealthy habit of relying upon (tapped) iCloud, I want to install my own iCloud-like server on my private, shared server outside of the US. It needs to employ only standard techniques such as PHP and MySQL, not require any shell access, and of course, no root-only accessible logs (Apache logs are NOT available). It also needs to encrypt all data residing on the server.

At first, I tried to install ownCloud 5, then recently, 6, but this piece of unreliable software gave errors 500 4 times out of 5 for apparently no reason (even the hosting company's techs couldn't quite get why it was unreliable), encryption doesn't work, automated-install script doesn't work at all, etc.. At the same time, the same server hosts a rather complex blog engine with advanced features and add-ons without any issue or slowdowns. SparkleShare is also excluded because it requires shell access.

So maybe advice on smaller-scale, but actually working CalDAV / CardDAV servers is welcome. I'd rather avoid hosting that at home because of uptime and noise concerns.

well to be blunt if you cant get owncloud running there is something wrong on the server. owncloud is very simple to setup and configure. just follow the instructions and run a supported OS. that would be OpenSuSe, RHEL (that includes all of its forks) and i think Ubuntu is on the list of official supported distros.

Been running OwnCloud for almost 2 years with zero issues. granted we dont do any heavy encryption, but our calDAV/cardDAV work great as does file sharing.

OC is well-known not to work properly on HTTPS connections, among others (And it doesn't work every time on non-encrypted connections). I think a less ambitious but actually working piece of software, maybe providing less functionality, would be best in that case. And the server has no issue running a complex blog engine: so at the very least, the statement that OC doesn't need any special permission is over-optimistic as one needs access to Apache logs or the command line for debugging purpose, or both, which are note typically available on shared hosting for security reasons.

So how would I get CalDAV/CardDAV functionality installed, encrypted, without any special permission request?