this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
99 points (96.3% liked)

Selfhosted

40347 readers
334 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

  1. Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.

  2. No spam posting.

  3. Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  6. No trolling.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I have a unique name, think John Doe, and I'm hoping to create a unique and "professional" looking email account like johndoe@gmail.com or john@doe.com. Since my name is common, all reasonable permutations are taken. I was considering purchasing a domain with something unique, then making personal family email accounts for john@mydoe.com jane@mydoe.com etc.

Consider that I'm starting from scratch (I am). Is there a preferred domain registrar, are GoDaddy or NameCheap good enough? Are there prebuilt services I can just point my domain to or do I need to spin up a VPS and install my own services? Are there concerns tying my accounts to a service that might go under or are some "too big to fail"?

I can expand what hangs off the domain later, but for now I just need a way to make my own email addresses and use them with the relative ease of Gmail or others. Thanks in advance!!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ChrislyBear@lemmy.world 72 points 10 months ago (29 children)

Do NOT self-host email! In the long run, you'll forget a security patch, someone breaches your server, blasts out spam and you'll end up on every blacklist imaginable with your domain and server.

Buy a domain, DON'T use GoDaddy, they are bastards. I'd suggest OVH for European domains or Cloudflare for international ones.

After you have your domain, register with "Microsoft 365" or "Google Workspace" (I'd avoid Google, they don't have a stable offering) or any other E-Mail-Provider that allows custom domains.

Follow their instructions on how to connect your domain to their service (a few MX and TXT records usually suffice) and you're done.

After that, you can spin up a VPS and try out new stuff and connect it also to your domain (A and CNAMR records).

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 5 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I’d avoid Google, they don’t have a stable offering

What you you mean by not stable?

I've been (stuck with) Google Workspace for many, many years - I was grandfathered out from the old G-Suite plans. The biggest issue for me is that all my Play store purchases for my Android are tied to my Workspace's identity, and there's no way to unhook that if I move.

I want to move. I have serious trust issues with Google. But I can't stop paying for Workspaces, as it means I'd lose all my Android purchases. It's Hotel fucking California.

But I've always found the email to be stable, reliable, and the spam filtering is top notch (after they acquired and rolled Postini into the service).

[–] notgold@aussie.zone 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I tore that bandwidth off a while ago. Same thing with trust issues and google.

Since then I set up a family account and use a regular Gmail account for app store purchases so I can change provider at any time. Can share most of my app purchases with family. I don't actually check the gmail email. Just use it for Android services.

[–] DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah, that's the other thing that shits me. Paying for my wife and I on Workspaces, and we don't have family sharing rights. We're literally paying to be treated like second-class citizens!

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (26 replies)