Currently I’m with lemmy.world, but if i wanted to create my own, to run at my house, would I need to register a domain? I like the idea of having my own domain but also don’t know how the storage works… like if I post to my own, sure it gets stored, but if I post to somewhere on lemmy.world, where does it get stored?
You need to make sure that you can open some of your ports to expose your applications to the internet, also known as “port forwarding”.
You need a domain name on the internet for people to access your IP address from the internet. This can be free with ddns but if you want your unique domain name, you must pay for it yearly from a domain registrar.
You also probably need a TLS, which is free of charge if you obtain it from Let’s Encrypt.
And finally, just keep your server running 24/7. Keep in mind that your posts may not show up if your server becomes unresponsive or is offline.