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diff --git a/content/blog/2022-06-01-ditching-cloudflare.org b/content/blog/2022-06-01-ditching-cloudflare.org deleted file mode 100644 index 51a63c6..0000000 --- a/content/blog/2022-06-01-ditching-cloudflare.org +++ /dev/null @@ -1,89 +0,0 @@ -#+title: Ditching Cloudflare for Njalla -#+date: 2022-06-01 -#+description: A retrospective on my decision to leave Cloudflare and move to Njalla for domain registration and DNS. -#+filetags: :sysadmin: - -* Registrar -After spending a year or so using Cloudflare for DNS only - no proxying -or applications - I spent the last few months using Cloudflare Tunnels -and Cloudflare Access to protect my self-hosted websites and -applications via their proxy traffic model. - -However, I have never liked using Cloudflare due to their increasingly -large share of control over web traffic, as well as their business model -of being a MITM for all of your traffic. - -So, as of today, I have switched over to [[https://njal.la][Njalla]] as -my registrar and DNS manager. I was able to easily transfer my domains -over rapidly, with only one domain taking more than 15-30 minutes to -propagate. - -+I do still have two domains sitting at Cloudflare for the moment while -I decide if they're worth the higher rates (one domain is 30€ and the -other is 45€).+ - -#+begin_quote -*Update (2022.06.03)*: I ended up transferring my final two domains over -to Njalla, clearing my Cloudflare account of personal data, and deleting -the Cloudflare account entirely. /I actually feel relieved to have moved -on to a provider I trust./ - -#+end_quote - -* DNS -As noted above, I'm using Njalla exclusively for DNS configurations on -my domains. - -However, the transfer process was not ideal. As soon as the domains -transferred over, I switched the nameservers from Cloudflare to Njalla -and lost most of the associated DNS records. So, the majority of the -time spent during the migration was simply re-typing all the DNS records -back in one-by-one. - -This would be much simpler if I were able to edit the plain-text format -of the DNS configuration. I was able to do that at a past registrar -(perhaps it was [[https://gandi.net/][Gandi.net]]?) and it made life a -lot easier. - -** Dynamic DNS Updates -I have built an easy Python script to run (or set-up in =cron= to run -automatically) that will check my server's IPv4 and IPv6, compare it to -Njalla, and update the DNS records if they don't match. You can see the -full script and process in my other post: -[[../njalla-dns-api/][Updating Dynamic DNS with Njalla API]]. - -I haven't used this other method, but I do know that you can create -=Dynamic= DNS records with Njalla that -[[https://njal.la/docs/ddns/][work for updating dynamic subdomains]]. - -** Njalla's DNS Tool -One neat upside to Njalla is that they have a -[[https://check.njal.la/dns/][DNS lookup tool]] that provides a lot of -great information for those of you (AKA: me) who hate using the =dig= -command. - -This was very useful for monitoring a couple of my transferred domains -to see when the changes in nameservers, records, and DNSSEC went into -effect. - -* Tunnel -Cloudflare Tunnel is a service that acts as a reverse-proxy (hosted on -Cloudflare's servers) and allowed me to mask the private IP address of -the server hosting my various websites and apps. - -However, as I was moving away from Cloudflare, I was not able to find a -suitable replacement that was both inexpensive and simple. So, I simply -went back to hosting [[/blog/set-up-nginx-reverse-proxy/][my own reverse -proxy with Nginx]]. With the recent additions of Unifi hardware in my -server/network rack, I am much more protected against spam and malicious -attacks at the network edge than I was before I switched to Cloudflare. - -* Access -Cloudflare Access, another app I used in combination with Cloudflare -Tunnel, provided an authentication screen that required you to enter -valid credentials before Cloudflare would forward you to the actual -website or app (if the website/app has their own authentication, you'd -then have to authenticate a second time). - -I did not replace this service with anything since I only host a handful -of non-sensitive apps that don't require duplicate authentication. |