Do you need a domain name if you are hosting a Lemmy instance, or will it work fine with just an ip-address + port (e.g. <username>@<ip-address>:<port>
)?
It requires an HTTPS connection, and certificates can only be obtained for domain names. So yes, pretty much.
Also consider than IPs can change, even if you’re using a hosting provider. Domain names makes changing the IP much easier.
Domain names can be obtained for as cheap as $3/year for the xyz TLD. If you can’t pay for anything, there’s also free services that can let you get a subdomain, like noip.com, afraid.org, azote.org.
Also if you dont mind numbers .xyz domains can be like $1 a year. It has to be only numbers and i think at least 9 digits.
Sorry but do you mean that .xyz domains only allow for a numbers only domain name? Because I don’t think that’s true.
No i mean if you want a super cheap .xyz domain, its very cheap if you choose a domain that is digits only. For example my lemmy domain is 158436977.xyz. its 89 cents a year.
You can certainly have xyz domains that are words just like any other.
Oh, that is actually a good idea if a cheap domain is wanted.
I mean nothing prevents you from using a self signed certificate
Is imagine the rest of the fediverse will refuse to connect tho.
But wouldn’t that be the certificate of the other instance, not your local one?
As others mentioned other things need to connect to your instance so valid ssl matters