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129

How to use a domain I own to self-host services? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by gedaliyah@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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I'm not really sure how to ask this because my knowledge is pretty limited. Any basic answers or links will be much appreciated.

I have a number of self hosted services on my home PC. I'd like to be able to access them safely over the public Internet. There are a couple of reasons for this. There is an online calendar scheduling service I would like to have access to my caldav/carddav setup. I'd also like to set up Nextcloud, which seems more or less require https. I am using http connections secured through Tailscale at the moment.

I own a domain through an old Squarespace account that I would like to use. I currently have zero knowledge or understanding of how to route my self hosted services through the domain that I own, or even if that's the correct way to set it up. Is there a guide that explains step by step for beginners how to access my home setup through the domain that I own? Should I move the domain from Squarespace to another provider that is better equipped for this type of setup?

Is this a bad idea for someone without much experience in networking in general?

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[–] eksb@programming.dev 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

            
              Consider getting a VPS to play around with to learn how this stuff works before you expose your data to the internet.
Learn about how DNS works. You will create an A record (and possibly also an AAAA recordy) for your domain pointing to your home IP (or VPS).
If SquareSpace does not let you set records (and will only allow you to use Squarespace-hosted services) you will need to migrate your domain to another provider. I like gandi.net.
Learn how your router does port forwarding. You will forward port(s) for the calendar service from your router to your home PC. (Or learn how to do firewalls on your VPS.)
Before you actually connect to it with credentials over the internet, set up SSL/TLS certificates with LetsEncrypt.

[–] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The educational route I took was Hurricane Electric's free IPv6 online course. It taught me a bunch of networking principles. When you finish the course (and get "sage" status), you get free lifetime DNS access. This includes dynamic DNS that automatically updates when your IP address changes.

Because of this, I can self-host on a basic residential plan without paying for any additional services.

[–] Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oooo this might be the path I take to finally get off IPv4. Cheers. I've already set up reverse proxies, but finally updating to 1999 technology seems like a good plan.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Consider getting a VPS to play around with to learn how this stuff works before you expose your data to the internet.

Highly recommend this, especially when exposing your local server to the internet when you may still be a bit green with the security aspects of self hosting. Small VPS for under $30 a year are dime a dozen really, and well worth the price for the education you can get from them.

Even now, I have a small VPS that I regularly test things on before I put it on the production server.