Hello,
I'm considering registering my own domain for the purposes of hosting a personal website and/or email.
What should one look out for in this scenario?
I'm particularly interested in reputable registrar recommendations.
Any further tips & links to resources on ways to preserve privacy / anonymity / security in this situation would be much appreciated.
For example, the "usTLD Nexus" has some pretty obtuse sounding requirements:
Proxy, or privatized registrations, are not permitted under current policy.
https://www.about.us/faqs
The more I look into it the crazier it sounds:
Information Collected From Registrants
To register a name, Registrants (through their Registrars) will be required to provide basic registration information to the Registry. The minimum required information is:
§ The domain name registered;
§ The IP address and corresponding names of the primary and secondary name servers for the registered name;
§ The Registrar name and URL or, where appropriate, the identity of the delegated manager under whom the name is registered;
§ The original creation date and term of the registration;
> § The name and postal address of the domain name Registrant;
> § The name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and (where available) fax number of the name holder for the name registered;
> § The name, postal address, e- mail address, voice telephone number, and (where available) fax number of the technical contact for the name registered; and
§ The name, postal address, e- mail address, voice telephone number, and (where available) fax number of the administrative contact for the name registered.
https://www.about.us/cdn/resources/ebooks/policies/usTLD_Nexus_Requirements_Policy.pdf
Like most things, my assumption here is that there's a "default way" which is convenient / cheap / problematic, and also a "right way" which is maybe more anonymous / private / secure, less convenient, and depends on threat models. I'd love to hear different folks' perspectives on each end of that spectrum.
I know this is somewhat off-topic, but I think that a discussion like this could be helpful as it is sometimes suggested on this forum that users register their own domain name for email. (recent example: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/4043-private-email-providers/41 )
Thanks all~