From 797a1404213173791a5f4126a77ad383ceb00064 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Cleberg Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2024 22:34:28 -0600 Subject: initial migration to test org-mode --- blog/ditching-cloudflare/index.org | 89 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 89 insertions(+) create mode 100644 blog/ditching-cloudflare/index.org (limited to 'blog/ditching-cloudflare/index.org') diff --git a/blog/ditching-cloudflare/index.org b/blog/ditching-cloudflare/index.org new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51a63c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/ditching-cloudflare/index.org @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +#+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. -- cgit v1.2.3-70-g09d2