Says “Please type in the domain into the input field below that will be used for Nextcloud in order to create a new AIO instance.”
I dont wanna unnecessarily spend money
It can be an ip address, if you have a static ip. If you’re planning to host this on the open internet and have a dynamic ip (home internet is most likely for this), or static and don’t want to pay for a top level domain you can use a service like noip.com for a free address like “test.ddns.net”
You can also change this after the initial setup in Nextcloud’s config.php as well as as additional domain names/ip addresses that can reach the server.
alright then i think imma setup with a free one and then buy one, its only $10 a year
thank u :)
and just to get this right, if i want to acess it outside of my lan, i cant use my ip? i dont think my ip changes, has been the same as long as i remember
Yes you can use your ip, a domain name is just way easier to remember! :-)
so then do I just put in my IP into that field? and I’m guessing this can just changed later? I’d like to finish setup without spending money, and get a domain later
You can purchase one, or as a first step you can use duckdns.org which is entirely free! Then when you think you want your own domain name you could just switch :-)
If you only need nextcloud on your local network, a quick and dirty way of assigning hostnames to machines is the hosts file. Obviously, this has to be done on every computer from which you wish to access nextcloud. Also, nonrooted mobile OSs don’t let you edit the hosts file.
Alternatively, you can set up a local DNS server. Pihole also has that capability (I personally had mixed results with Pihole, not sure if I did something wrong). Some routers may have that too.
If you need it public on the internet, yes, you need a domain name. Some providers offer free domains (but it will be a subdomain of the provider). Something to keep in mind is that your IP is probably dynamic. When you connect to the Internet, the ISP assigns you a random IP address from their pool of IPs. To keep the domain up to date, you will need to setup a dynamic DNS solution. This is a simple script/program that periodically checks your IP, and if it changes, updates that domain automatically.
You can also use Tailscale Tunnel which will give you an subdomain to access for free.
Or full hardcore and use Tor .onion domain. Completely free with additional privacy.
Hi,
What is the reason you do not want a domain? it is not that DNS-domains are that expensive these days. The cheapest option I found is .ovh (which is one of the major cloud-providers in France), which is 3 euro / year (+VAT). You can then put as much hosts or subdomains under it, and it supports dynamic IP.
Agreed, .ovh is not the most “professional” looking domain, but it depends on what you want to do. If your goal is simply to have something for yourself / family / friends, then this is good enough.
BTW. Having your own domain for a nextcloud instance has additional advances: you can get a real https/tls certificate from letsencrypt, and -if you put a reverse proxy in front of your NC- it shields you from people who just scan the complete IP-space of the internet but who do not know your domain.
didnt want one bc i gotta pay, but its fine, and especially since i can get those certificates
Hi,
Good idea!
And once you have you domainname, you can do the following:
- set up a reverse reverse proxy (apache, nginx) in front of nextcloud
- in the configuration of apache/bginx use virtual hosts.
- make sure that the default virtualhost (in apache, that is the the one that does not have “ServerName”) first in the configuration. Point that to a local website with just an empty directory
- then, AFTER the default virtual host, add the reverse-proxy configuration of your nextcloud instance.
What this does, is that if somebody addresses your website with a URL that does not contain the exact hostname of your nextcloud, the webquery will go to the empty website and simply return a 404. A hacker who does a webrequest to “https://your-ip-address/login” will just get a “404 not found” and not reach your nextcloud instance.
This keeps people who just scan the internet for vulnerable systems and try out all kind of URLs to try to get in out of your nextcloud.
Of course, this only works if you keep the full hostname of your instance to yourself and do not post it somewhere (including social media, mailing-lists, …)
Good luck with your nextcloud server
