Published 2025-10-04
tag(s): #useless-facts #linux #meta
The site has moved to a new host: a VPS running in Digital Ocean.
I don't expect the site to change. I could have used Fastmail's static hosting until the end
of time.
But...I am a developer. Heck, I used to do web development.[1]
Shouldn't I have a website hosted in a server, that I configured myself?
The thing is, all web development that I ever did was .NET corporate stuff, I never had to
deal with DNS, and up until today I had more familiarity with IIS than nginx.
Well, at this point I am pretty confident saying: I don't know anything about neither of them.
Yay!
Shout out to this guide, which I followed to a T to get the site running locally in the
VPS: Danny van
Kooten: "Setting up a VPS for static site hosting".
That last 20% that I walked on my own, that's when the headaches started.
How do I get the site running outside the VPS? How do I configure the DNS? Will this break my
email, which uses sebasmonia.com ? Etc.
All those networking classes in college where I barely paid attention, eons ago, came back to
me in the form of a nebulous mass of ignorance.
I had a passing idea of DNS entries having records, and that I needed to get it right or
everything would stop working. No pressure. 😬
Well, after a few hours of reading Fastmail's docs, Iwantmyname docs, Digital Ocean's docs,
and some blog posts...Not only I seem to have working email, but also felt confident enough to
setup OpenPGP
WKD without revisiting the docs: created the A record for the subdomain, the
new site in nginx, updated the certificate to include the openpgpkey
subdomain.
Look ma! no hands!
Then I had to look online how to configure the CORS header thingy
so https://www.webkeydirectory.com gave my setup
a greenlight.
But I got pretty far without searching anything.
Q: Why not self-host for real? You are still depending on a third party.
A: I have to thank my friend Diego[2] for convincing me that
hosting at home was going to be more than I could handle, at least for now. I could barely
make it in this setup. Maybe in the future?
Q: What cool things you wanted to try, that you felt this work was justified?
A: Well...stuff...that I read about. The other day.....ALRIGHT FINE, I don't know yet. But I
am sure I will find a use for a server like this! Like...file storage with WebDAV...? And some
other service...yep.
Q: Why didn't you take the chance to change the domain name?
A: No joke, I was really looking for domains that I liked, but 1) I wasn't going to change the
email anyway, and 2) I wasn't confident I could pull off having a single domain properly
configured, much less two.
And oh boy was I right on that last on. I would have had twice the amount of things to
misconfigure.
I swear I am not touching this setup until I really, really, really need to.