Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
After many years and experiments, another conclusion I'd like to share:
- Make sure you "own" (well, better: rent) at least one domain name with a recognisable but not "funny" name (my main domain is wildeboer.net)
- Only "buy" one of .com, .net, .org, .eu (when you live there) or your countries top level domain (TLD). Ignore all the fancy hype TLDs.
Your domain can become your digital identity authority that YOU control. This will become more important, IMHO. 1/n
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
As soon as you have "your" domain, you can do a lot of things that help you keep control of your digital identity. For example, use it to redirect e-mails via yournickname@yourdomain to services like proton or gmail. You can now switch email providers in case it's needed as YOU control the domain. 2/n
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
You can also use subdomains for other services. I use https://social.wildeboer.net for this Mastodon instance, hosted by https://masto.host. I use https://share.wildeboer.net for #Nextcloud backed storage to share pictures, files etc. I use https://jan.wildeboer.net for my blog. "Owning" a domain name gives me more control. 3/n
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
Yes, it comes with a bit of a learning curve. How to "buy" a domain and at which provider? How to configure DNS with teh correct CNAME entries etc. This looks complicated and dangerous. But once you've understood the basics, you will feel empowered and more in control of your digital identity. Totally worth it, IMHO! It's a skill that should be taught to everyone, IMHO :) 4/n
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
So how do we get more people to "own" domains and use them? I guess a lot of people have a lot of very different ideas. My initial idea is simple. Let's have regular DNS meetups, in person, where we simply meet at a nice place, help you to book a domain, configure it correctly etc. But I am sure others have even better ideas. Let's discuss. 5/n
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
Addendum: "Owning" your domain name and using it as the disambiguation point for many services also helps in decentralising the internet. Even if you just point your e-mail address at your domain to gmail or Apple and nothing else. It changes the balance of power slightly more towards you. Totally worth teh learning curve, IMHO.
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
@jarjan I'd be happy to offer my help in the hope that you will share what you've learned from me to more people you know. Grassroots DNS training, a positive version of a pyramid scheme :)
Jarjan
@jwildeboer
I'd like to learn a bit more DNS! I have a couple of domains, even a few that I don't use at all (but like the names, so they're hard to give up 😅). Anyway, I've also ran in to some DNS questions and small issues. Maybe I can learn to solve them!
Francesco P Lovergine
@jwildeboer
Totally agree about that, done maybe almost 30 years ago. And nothing is better than reading 'DNS and bind' by O'Reilly to understand how it works.
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
Addendum 2: When discussing in teh replies, please do try to write in a way that is accessible to non-DNS experts. I'd love to get more people interested in learning this. Deep technical discussions on details and special cases might not be really helpful ;)
Aleksandra Fedorova :fedora:
Having DNS as an entry point is hard, because the target audience doesn't know yet that these letters - DNS - is what they need to search for.
So you need a better slogan. "Own yourself on the Internet" or just "Own the Internet", or something like that :)
Scott H.
@jwildeboer I was on Bluesky last year. I ended up leaving; however, one thing I liked is they will pin identity onto a domain you control. I don't see why Mastodon couldn't do that as well. Oh my, that would be a painful migration. Anyhoo: https://bsky.social/about/blog/4-28-2023-domain-handle-tutorial
Scott H.
@jwildeboer You are running your own instance, no? Are you parsing what I said? Am I just not understanding you?
Petr Tesarik
@jwildeboer This is a nice idea, indeed!
I started in the 1990s, so I pretty much had to set up everything the hard way, but even the hard way was much easier back then. I still run my own email server, because adding the complexity step by step was manageable, but I don't think I could start from scratch today.
I never realized how much of my independence can be attributed to controlling my own DNS and not to running my own services.
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
@ptesarik If I would have gotten 1€ for every broken zone file I wrote in my life, I would be a Very Rich Person by now ;)
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
@ptesarik I worked at a hosting company for a few years where we ran our own DNS infrastructure for around 400k domains. I programmed a lot of backend code to update DNS entries, so yes, I learned how to do DNS correctly in a way I hope no one will ever have to experience again ;)
Petr Tesarik
@jwildeboer Oh, how so? Do you run your own name server? Or, does your provider let you upload a new zone file without checking it first?
Petr Tesarik
@jwildeboer FTR I gave up running my own authoritative name server long ago.
First, since I have only one domain, it required glue record in the TLD zone anyway, so it didn't buy much in terms of independence.
Second, my domain is properly signed, but my provider saved me all the hassle with DNSSEC.
Petr Tesarik
@jwildeboer But yeah, the memories… When the zone file refused to load, named stopped serving requests for that domain, and I had only a bit of time to fix everything while the previous records were still cached by all major ISPs…
No, we didn't have a separate staging system in 1997.
Petr Tesarik
@jwildeboer Let me explain the “glue record” for othes:
The DNS records for each domain must be physically stored somewhere and served by an authoritative DNS server for that domain. But how do other computers find that server in the Internet? Easy, they look at the NS record for the domain. However, that contains a host name, not an IP address. If the host name is in the same domain, how do you resolve it to an IP address? Well, you add a glue A and/or AAAA record to the parent zone file.
Julius Schwartzenberg
@jwildeboer I think the idea of @freedominternet also makes a lot of sense. As an ISP and e-mail provider they include one domain name as part of their subscription. Because of this for instance my parents are now using their own domain name for e-mail. Without Freedom Internet I don't think that would have happened.
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
@jwildeboer I non-profit that manages this for people might help. You may even be able to set it up as a registrar so it doesn't need to integrate with third parties. It would need to provide a mechanism for buying domains and a (community contributed) way of generating DNS records for specific things so you could say 'I use service X, set up DNS records for it thanks' and a legal structure so that the domains that it registered were fully owned by the individuals who registered them and would be returned to them in the event the non-profit went out of business.
Nemo_bis 🌈
@david_chisnall https://www.hostsharing.net/ also manages the domains. @hostsharing
Jarjan
@jwildeboer
Ok, so maybe others can read along. 😊 I host my photos with Smugmug on www.iomm.net (Images On My Mind 😁). I also redirect iomm.net to the www domain. Now, the issue... iomm.net sometimes does, and sometimes does not redirect. Mostly on my phone it doesn't work, but on my desktop pc it does work.
Any ideas? Need any more info to know what's going on?
Ge0rG
@jwildeboer
@jarjan
www.iomm.net is a CNAME redirect to domains.smugmug.com. For obscure historical reasons, you are not allowed to set a CNAME redirect on the domain itself, so this trick doesn't work for iomm.net. Instead, you need to either configure a web redirect to www.iomm.net, or copy the three IP address ("A") records from domains.smugmug.com to iomm.net (and periodically check if the provider changed the servers!)
Michele Adduci
@jwildeboer what kind of Domain Registrar have you used, to do this kind of forwarding for e-mail and domains? Not everyone offers it
Erik
@jwildeboer permission to get unfunny sir
*Assumes permission*
Given the farmers' protests of the last years, Wildeboer is quite humorous
Personne
That's nice, but domain names are getting increasingly expensive year over year. For most of us, especially in countries where the cost of living outweighs salaries, it's an added expense. I feel there's a sort of feudalism growing in the medium, where you pay ransom to middlemen to be able to keep your digital ID. How do we get out of that loop? I don't know any domain name nonprofit cooperatives.
Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:
Final Addendum before I start to write some blog posts on this topic: I will have to rewrite my "DNS Done My Way" post from 2022. For those with a bit of technical background, it however still is (at least in my biased opinion) a good starting point to see what DNS can do for you and your domain :) https://jan.wildeboer.net/2022/07/DNS-done-my-way/
Pete Kockritz
@jwildeboer Another thing for setting up DNS, some email servers won't accept mail without the correct SPF, DKIM and DMARC records for your email domain.
Helmut Tammen
@jwildeboer totally agree. Having your own domain offers you a lot of possibilities. But there are two hurdles to overcome. First one you described, it's the configuration. People with no technical background don't (want to) understand the details. So it has to be foolproof.
The second one are the costs. Although a domain does not cost a lot (I pay €18/year) not everyone can or is willing to pay this. It's much easier to have a subdomain at Facebook, ... that "costs" nothing.
Eugenus Optimus 🇺🇦
@jwildeboer is there only you on this mastodon instance? How much it cost to run a server for it?
Eugenus Optimus 🇺🇦
@jwildeboer what domain registrar you using? I was on namecheap, but recently started using DynaDot, they have mobile app and clean UI without selling more stuff like GoDaddy
Eugenus Optimus 🇺🇦
@jwildeboer more than I expected, bur still affordable
lj·rk
@jwildeboer I’d recommend not necessarily using your name… as long as you’re not 100% sure it might change 0:-)
Ingo Wichmann
@jwildeboer even with your own domain name: how would you move your mastodon instance to another provider without loosing all your data?
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