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![](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/8286e071-7449-4413-a084-1eb5242e2cf4.png)
Yes, you need to buy (register) a domain beforehand.
The e-mail provider of your choice that provides custom domains will ask you to
- either point your domain to their nameservers (done from the domain provider’s panel)
- or insert/update some DNS records on your domain (either from your domain provider’s panel if it is supported or you can link your domain to another DNS service e.g. CloudFlare)
Yeah, sounds like a permissions error.