Hi, I wanted to host a personal Lemmy instance online (for just myself, I don’t think I can take the upkeep for other users - please let me know if this is not possible) and wanted to understand how to “attach” a CDN service to it.

The idea behind doing this is that I’m in the US but I’m looking to host a server in Europe. I am looking into Cloudflare’s free CDN service, but it would be great if someone could point me towards how I can configure this setup to speed up the loading time for my Lemmy instance (which is going to be far away from me, geographically).

I would also like to know about your setups and how you have hosted Lemmy.

Thanks!

  • @MigratingtoLemmyOPEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    Hi, could you explain the concept behind having to change my nameservers? Thanks

    • jerryEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      Currently your web address has a domain that is forwarded to your lemmy instance. After setting up cloudlflare, you wil have to switch it to cloudflare’s nameservers. They will cdn/host/protect files and part of your site will come from there to users, and the rest will come from your server.

      • @MigratingtoLemmyOPEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        Thanks for your comment! Could you tell me why Cloudflare would need for me to use their nameservers to protect my site and proxy traffic through their infrastructure to my instance? I’m very curious about the technical reason for them to ask us to do so

        • jerryEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          Well if the nameservers went just to your instance, they couldn’t provide anything. That address only goes to that machine. To use the cloudflare service, traffic goes there first, then to your instance. Think of a nameserver as an adress. If the content is at your house, then going straight to your house is what you’re doing now. There’s no wat for cloudflare to get in the middle.

          • @MigratingtoLemmyOPEnglish
            1•1 year ago

            Thank you. I’m trying to understand how exactly is using CF’s nameservers letting Cloudflare intercept traffic from around the world to my instance?

            • jerryEnglish
              1•1 year ago

              When you type a TLD into the internet, a nameserver tells where that address is. Right now it’s going to your instance, to work, cloudlfare needs to be the address. Cloudflare isnt something you install on your server, it’s a nother server.

              • @MigratingtoLemmyOPEnglish
                1•1 year ago

                If Cloudflare just needed the address, they could query the domain name I would provide them during the setup process (which they do, in order to set up the CDN). Why their DNS servers instead of my own?

                My apologies, I think I’m missing a crucial point here which is why I’m asking the same question multiple times. Thanks so much for your help!