1y ago

Does a Lemmy instance require a domain name?

Do you need a domain name if you are hosting a Lemmy instance, or will it work fine with just an ip-address + port (e.g. <username>@<ip-address>:<port>)?

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It requires an HTTPS connection, and certificates can only be obtained for domain names. So yes, pretty much.
Also consider than IPs can change, even if you're using a hosting provider. Domain names makes changing the IP much easier.
Domain names can be obtained for as cheap as $3/year for the xyz TLD. If you can't pay for anything, there's also free services that can let you get a subdomain, like noip.com, afraid.org, azote.org.
- The reason being that federation means other instances send you things. It's not pull-only, or else you could likely get away with private instances sitting behind NAT. But since activitypub involves publishing to inboxes from source to destination, they need some way to reach you. And since we want to validate that connection and that some external authority can vouch for ita ownership, we use TLS Certs with the DNS hostname that matches your server name.
- certificates can only be obtained for domain names
  That is not true, nothing prevents it on the technical side, and even some trusted CAs sell them under certain conditions
- Also if you dont mind numbers .xyz domains can be like $1 a year. It has to be only numbers and i think at least 9 digits.
  
  Sorry but do you mean that .xyz domains only allow for a numbers only domain name? Because I don't think that's true.
  
  No i mean if you want a super cheap .xyz domain, its very cheap if you choose a domain that is digits only. For example my lemmy domain is 158436977.xyz. its 89 cents a year.
  You can certainly have xyz domains that are words just like any other.
  
  Oh, that is actually a good idea if a cheap domain is wanted.
  
  What name registrar would you recommend?
  EDIT: found one for 0.85 dollars on namecheap
  EDIT EDIT: for some reason its labeled as a "premium domain" :P
  
  Namecheap is what I use ya. They are also really great if you have some internal services and want just a cheap domain to get SSL certs from LetEncrypt. All my internal traffic is SSL now because why not, its 85 cents a year. And no dealing with self-signed certs.
- I mean nothing prevents you from using a self signed certificate
  
  Is imagine the rest of the fediverse will refuse to connect tho.
  
  But wouldn't that be the certificate of the other instance, not your local one?
  
  As others mentioned other things need to connect to your instance so valid ssl matters
  
  Since AP servers both accept incoming connections and make outgoing connections, both sides need valid certificates to do HTTPS.
  
  Alright, wasn't aware it needed to be both sides
  
  Good luck getting the server connecting to you to trust it!

29 comments