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I'm also looking to self-host and have some questions. My too biggest concerns are: 1) In my area a static IP is extremely expensive and outside of my budget.

I'm also looking to self-host and have some questions. My too biggest concerns are: 1) In my area a static IP is extremely expensive and outside of my budget. This leaves Dynamic DNS. 2) From what I can tell, Dynamic DNS providers only map 1 domain to your account. I would like the ability point more than 1 domain to my personal server. Can I do this without paying through the nose?

sp332 15y ago
Sure, just register a domain normally (e.g. at www.domain.com use code HAK5 for 15% off if you like). Then point its CNAME record to your dynamic domain name. That way, whoever goes to your new domain will be forwarded (at the DNS level) to your other domain name, which will then be resolved by your dynamic DNS provider to your dynamic IP.
- MatthewPhillips 15y ago
  Sorry for the vagueness, but I do not want multiple domains to point to the same site. I would like multiple domains pointing to the same server which servers different sites. What I need is the server component that knows which site to serve (or which mail account to route to, etc.)
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - sp332 15y ago
    Oh, I see. That's actually pretty common, google "name-based virtual host" for lots of details. I don't think dynamic DNS will affect that.
  - dredmorbius 15y ago
    You can still do that. You host a box via DynDNS and its canonical hostname is, say, "mystatichost.example.com". You decide you want to run a www and an ftp on that domain: CNAME www.example.com and ftp.example.com to mystatichost.example.com. 'www.example.com' is your default host on that server. You decide that you want several entirely different domains, say, example.net, example.edu, and example.org, all running from the same host. You'd again point CNAMES to 'mystatichost.example.com', and on your httpd config, create named virtual hosts for those domains. So long as the http request is for 'example.org' and not 'example.com', the surfer won't know the difference. That's been a part of basic webservers (apache, nginx, etc.) for, oh, well over a decade. Mail/MX can be handled similarly. Your domains' MX records point to 'mystatichost.example.com' as their mailserver. That's how every mail hosting provider in existance does this (say: googlemail.com for anyone using GMail hosted domains). There's absolutely no reason the end-user would know the difference. Again: all very basic Internet plumbing basics.

sp332 15y ago

Sure, just register a domain normally (e.g. at www.domain.com use code HAK5 for 15% off if you like). Then point its CNAME record to your dynamic domain name. That way, whoever goes to your new domain will be forwarded (at the DNS level) to your other domain name, which will then be resolved by your dynamic DNS provider to your dynamic IP.

MatthewPhillips 15y ago
Sorry for the vagueness, but I do not want multiple domains to point to the same site. I would like multiple domains pointing to the same server which servers different sites. What I need is the server component that knows which site to serve (or which mail account to route to, etc.)
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- sp332 15y ago
  Oh, I see. That's actually pretty common, google "name-based virtual host" for lots of details. I don't think dynamic DNS will affect that.
- dredmorbius 15y ago
  You can still do that. You host a box via DynDNS and its canonical hostname is, say, "mystatichost.example.com". You decide you want to run a www and an ftp on that domain: CNAME www.example.com and ftp.example.com to mystatichost.example.com. 'www.example.com' is your default host on that server. You decide that you want several entirely different domains, say, example.net, example.edu, and example.org, all running from the same host. You'd again point CNAMES to 'mystatichost.example.com', and on your httpd config, create named virtual hosts for those domains. So long as the http request is for 'example.org' and not 'example.com', the surfer won't know the difference. That's been a part of basic webservers (apache, nginx, etc.) for, oh, well over a decade. Mail/MX can be handled similarly. Your domains' MX records point to 'mystatichost.example.com' as their mailserver. That's how every mail hosting provider in existance does this (say: googlemail.com for anyone using GMail hosted domains). There's absolutely no reason the end-user would know the difference. Again: all very basic Internet plumbing basics.