I’m looking to add a custom domain to my email to start building a more permanent identity on the internet (I have been shifting providers since I started degoogling).
I also want to either host a WordPress site or a fediverse instance (haven’t decided) like Hubzilla for things like my writings and a general place to find my stuff online and maybe even host a few friends’ pages.
Can I buy one domain and use it for both?
Yes. Email uses different DNS records than websites, so you can use your second level domain for both.
When you set it up, you’ll create MX records that point to your mail server(s), and A records that point to your web server(s).
Thank you! Also, if I want different domains for different Hubzilla accounts within the same server, would that be possible? Like the server itself is a.hub, but an account in the hub wants to use b. space as it’s domain, like username@b.space, would I be able to allow that?
That depends on the mail server, but usually yes. The same mail server can handle multiple domains.
It’s plenty possible. An address can be broken down like this.
Protocol (https://) subdomain (lemmy.) domain (socdojo) top-level-domain/TLD (com) path (/some/file/name/here)
https://lemmy.socdojo.com/some/file/name/here
You will typically register a domain name at whatever TLD you like (historically they where meant to be .com for commerce, .gov for government, etc but that’s only really enforced for certain types like gov or org) and then you create subdomain from that to point to whatever services you put on the domain.
So you can have whatever you want on the same domain. There are some considerations where you might not want them attached, domain categorization services get a bit imprecise a lot of times and you might get caught up in some security filtering as a result.
Email specifically is a whole new dragon to tame, with things like spam and IP reputation lists, dmarc, dkim, SPF records and a bunch of other things. So be aware that it’s probably one of the hardest services to do entirely on your own.
Yeah I am not going to host my own email. I have a provider who I’m going to ask to attach the custom domain. Only the WordPress/Hubzilla instance I might host on my own.
I believe so. Most companies don’t host their own email servers, but they still use the same domain. MX DNS Record specifies the mail server.
yes! I use @liaizon@wake.st for fedi (mastodon) and liaizon@wake.st for email
Great! As a follow up question, for example I want to let a friend use my hubzilla server to host their hub. Can I “allow” them to bring their own domain name and let them use it?
Edit to add one more question: Is there a restriction on what top level domain can be used for what purpose (fedi, email, website) or anything goes?
a domain name is just a logical construct to route traffic. it can be used for whatever as long as your application/routing stack can handle the host names. so, basically, anything goes.
