Domain transfer to cloudflare questions

Website, Application, Performance Registrar
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Hello,
My domain is currently registered with Ionos and I’m looking at Cloudflare as a possible new registrar. The main reason is Ionos has advised me they don’t support reverse DNS which Synology support tells me I need to set up MailPlus server on my Synology NAS – one of the reasons I bought it to begin with. Questions:

  1. Cloudflare indicates they do not currently support premium domain registration or transfer. Can anyone please tell me how to definitively assess if my domain is a “premium” domain?
  2. what is the cost to transfer a .org domain to Cloudflare?
  3. I have 3 domains registered with Ionos and I’m only looking at transferring one first to see if it works the way I need it to. But that domain is due for renewal March 24, is that too tight a window to do the transfer and renew the domain with Cloudflare?
  4. Does Cloudflare support reverse DNS with domain registration such that it would allow me to set up the MailPlus server on a synology NAS? Configuring reverse DNS is apparently the first step in setting up MailPlus server. I suppose this should have been my first question… sorry :roll_eyes:

That’s enough questions for now, any help appreciated!

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apologies, couldn’t figure out how to edit my post and deleted, un-deleted, re-deleted it and started again… off to a great start!

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Reverse DNS has to be set by the owner of the IP address. Cloudflare does not proxy mail traffic (unless you use Spectrum) so using Cloudflare for the reasons you describe won’t work anyway.

Ionos does have reverse DNS entries for their hostnames…

dig +short -x 195.20.xxx.yyy
ip195-20-xxx-yyy.pbiaas.com.

…maybe they won’t change them for you and that’s your concern. Just having one even if it doesn’t match your mail server hostname/banner is enough as long as it resolves with the same name in both directions, even if some checkers complain about it.

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Hello SJR, thank you very much for your reply! I just read it and two questions come to mind—

first, the IP address is apparently assigned to my Synology NAS by Eero, the wifi mesh/router system we’re using. So I own the NAS do I own its IP address as well? Or does Eero own it?

Two, we are using Spectrum internet (and a “landline” with them also). We still use the spectrum modem, but we got rid of the spectrum router for the Eero mesh system. You mentioned something about “unless we use Spectrum“ but I wasn’t real clear on the implications. Could you elaborate?

Again, very grateful for your help :blush: I need to take a few minutes to absorb your message more thoroughly. You definitely sound like you know this subject well.

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Those are not public IP addresses, that’s just local routing on your LAN.

Cloudflare’s Spectrum TCP/UDP proxy, not Spectrum internet - unlucky coincidence…

But your ISP isn’t the issue, you want your mail server on Ionos. I’ve just looked and it does seem you can set the reverse DNS record for an IP address in Ionos, not tried it yet. You will have to ensure you have a matching (non-proxied) DNS record so the record resolves in both directions.

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I think @fun4k actually wants to run a mail server on his local Synology NAS, if I understand that correctly.

@fun4k
In that case, your ISP would have to set the reverse DNS records. Chances of that happening are just about ~0%.
I must strongly advise against running a local mail server from home. You should expect a lot of problems, many of which are impossible to solve. The biggest problem would be that many email providers categorically reject emails coming from home networks.

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I have alot to digest but I’ve decided to go ahead and initiate transfer of one domain to Cloudflare and if it goes well then I’ll look at transferring my other domains as well.

At this moment, here is my main concern:

I’ve had 2 or 3 people now who have advised me in fairly strong terms against setting up my own email server at home. The first person to hit me with that advice was a few days ago on another forum, and I was thinking, “what the heck?!” I didn’t join this forum seeking encouragement to curl up and quit! I joined hoping to learn how to accomplish this task successfully and that advice only made men want to dig in and work that much harder to make it happen. You might even say the best way to motivate me could be simply telling me I can’t do something.

So that was my attitude toward the lone voice of impending doom that first appeared waving the flag of the apocalypse. But when other voices began to echo these sentiments – different people, different settings – yet with eerily similar warnings… In the post right above me, for example, Laudian put it like this:

“I must strongly advise against running a local mail server from home. You should expect a lot of problems, many of which are impossible to solve. The biggest problem would be that many email providers categorically reject emails coming from home networks.”

Hmmmm. Laudian, that makes me want to start pacing back and forth wild-eyed, spitting and hissing my entire arsenal of expletives through tightly clenched teeth. And yet, I am remiss should I fail to heed your warning and take it seriously.

That does not mean to say I’m ready to give up on my plan, not by a long stretch. But I’d better have a back up plan ready to go in the event these warnings gain traction. So, should my aspirations of building and running my own email server from home come to nought – the following question is critical to the backup plan I have in mind:

Does Cloudflare include email functionality with domain registration? In other words, if my home email server should fail for whatever reason and I still have my domains actively registered with Cloudflare, is there an email portal I will be able to use without incurring additional cost? Some domain registrars include email with registration, others don’t. So this is the critical question upon which my future rests, along with the entire future of humanity.

Look forward to hearing back from the community, thank you!

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PS. when I submit a reply and immediately see and error and want to correct it, is that even possible? Twice I could only seen an option to delete the whole post and start over. So again, sorry for making such a mess of the thread!

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No.

I have a little pen below every post of mine to edit it. I don’t know if this is available for new users.

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apparently not… exceptionally annoying

well there goes my backup plan

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Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to discourage you from setting up your own mail server. It can be a fun project and you can learn a lot along the way.

But I’m running my own mail server, and I know enough to tell you that running one from a residential internet connection is a terrible idea for multiple reasons.

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May I ask what specific setup you are using? Are you familiar with the Synology MailPlus server package that I’m looking at installing on my Synology NAS? Do you know how it compares to what you’re using?

In any case, I very much appreciate all your input and I’m heading over to my Synology ticket shortly to ask for their feedback on these concerns.

So now that I’ve transferred a domain to Cloudflare to pursue all this, if I do abandon the idea of running my own email server, what are the email options on the Cloudflare platform for my domain? Ionos, despite their limitations, have a webmail setup I could use to set up email with my domains that also allowed me to use those domain based emails in the email apps on my various devices, and it was included with my domain registration package. You said Cloudflare doesn’t have that. But I’ve seen mention of email so they have something, I guess it’s a similar thing but not included? Costs extra?

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A fairly standard setup with Postfix and Dovecot.

Nope. But a quick Google check tells me it’s also using Postfix and Dovecot.

In general though, this forum is probably not the right place for questions regarding your mail server, unless it is DNS related.

None. Cloudflare has no mailbox service, neither free nor paid. You would have to use an external email service.

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No, I very much appreciate your feedback, thank you. At this point, I have transferred one domain to Cloudflare and my other domains I went ahead and renewed for another year with Ionos. What I was shooting for – to get all my domains transferred and registered with a new provider before their expiration dates – suffice to say, that deadline has been necessarily lifted.

The domain I just transferred to Cloudflare is technically a “parked domain” – not currently connected to a website or email host. It was just renewed and is registered through March 2026. Present status: active but not in use. I intend to change that…

My objective in transferring this domain to Cloudflare remains the same: I still intend to use it for practice setting up MailPlus server on my Synology NAS – only minus the stress of hurrying to beat the clock. Now I can take my time, experiment. If something isn’t working, step back, figure it out over a Margarita . No rush.

If it does start turning into the nightmare headache I’ve been warned of – if it reaches such a pitch I’m ready to abandon the whole idea and walk away – no matter really – no important business will be affected by it… no business at all, really. I won’t even begin to involve anything of consequence until everything is running smoothly.

Soooo…… what I need right now to start moving the ball up the field is help setting up DNS records – beginning with: MX records, A records and Reverse DNS. If we could get these items set up correctly, that would be a big step in the right direction!! Any help would be greatly appreciated. (for more information, see the following article)

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Create an MX record with name @ and mail server mail.example.com where example.com is your domain. The priority doesn’t matter, use 10 or whatever you want.

Create an A record with name mail and your IP address as the value, DNS-Only. Change this record every time your IP address changes.

Call your Internet Service Provider and ask them to set the reverse DNS record for your IP to mail.example.com, where example.com is again your domain. They are probably going to say no, as this is commonly restricted to Business class internet connections and requires a static IP address.

In the unlikely case that they do it, repeat this process every time your IP address changes.

You haven’t asked, but for SPF, you’ll want to use a TXT record with name @ and value v=spf1 mx -all

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Thank you for that information. I will be all over it in due course!

Quick note for anyone who may be following this thread with interest:
The amount of time I am able to devote to this project is likely to fluctuate a great deal in the coming days, but please rest assured this does not reflect any change in my own interest, or my determination to see this through to a definitive conclusion. It just means there’s probably alot going on.

So if this topic appears to be inactive, but no conclusion has been posted, then the ball is still in the air… somewhere (along with many other balls, no doubt).

xx

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