# Tips for setting up a small private Discourse behind a firewall?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-setting-up-a-small-private-discourse-behind-a-firewall/311607>\
**Category:** Self-hosting\
**Created:** [June 11, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-setting-up-a-small-private-discourse-behind-a-firewall/311607 "2024-06-11T16:47:08Z")\
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**Author:** ![piffy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/piffy/32/254198_2.png) [@piffy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/piffy)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-setting-up-a-small-private-discourse-behind-a-firewall/311607/1 "2024-06-11T16:47:08Z")

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The Discourse installation on DigitalOcean or similar servers is pretty straightfoward. But I’m considering setting up one for a small group where I work.

It might contain private or sensitive information so I would ideally be able to set it up on a server internal to the company. But there are complications such as getting an email service and something like below mentioned on the [install page](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md)

> 🔔 Discourse will not work from an IP address, you must own a domain name such as [example.com](http://example.com) to proceed.

Has anyone set up a firewalled discourse like this? Any tips?

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tips-for-setting-up-a-small-private-discourse-behind-a-firewall/311607)._