Cloudflare For Web Hosting Account

[velma 6]

Cloudflare in a sentence is a service that delivers your website's data much faster with enhanced security. Cloudflare's service comes with both free & paid services, many people are opting for the free version but configuration of Cloudflare onto one's web hosting account can be tricky for those unfamiliar to DNS

 

So I put together a tutorial to teach you on How to Add Cloudflare for Your Web Hosting Account. It is not generally Xisto - Web Hosting specific and 90% of the steps are the same.This is a tutorial for Linux/Cpanel hosting. To get started, you need :-

Your Xisto - Web Hosting Cpanel Account & its username/password. (You can request your provider/Xisto - Web Hosting for your details if you don't have them.

Your Xisto - Domains or Xisto - Support Login Details, the control panel is needed for the last step (Change of Nameservers).

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STEP 1 :- Create an Account with Cloudflare

Pretty self explanatory but please make sure to keep the details to this panel very safe.

Use the help of Strong Password Generator to create a strong password for the account.

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STEP 2 :- Select a Website

Once again, pretty self explanatory, add the domain you want to configure Cloudflare for.

Note :- Domain has to be registered & hosted in order for the service to work.

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STEP 3 :- Configure Records

These records, the DNS records are crucial for the healthy working of your website. If any of your records is configured incorrectly, your website's performance could suffer majorly.

It is best to add these records immediately to avoid any problems in the account.

Now comes the main question.. " How do I find my hosting account's DNS records? " . By default, any site's DNS record is visible in its Cpanel / Control Panel which is where the Cpanel details come to good use.

 

STEP 3.a :- FINDING CPANEL HOSTING DNS RECORDS

Login to your Xisto - Web Hosting Cpanel account with the username & password, the login url is yoursite.com:2082 or yoursite.com/cpanel

We will be using a very nifty tool called "Advanced DNS Zone Editor" provided by Xisto - Web Hosting Cpanel Hosting.

Go to the Domains section and then click on Advanced Editor

Or

Use the Find tool on the left side of your Cpanel Home Page.

Select the domain & wait for the DNS records to load.

You should see this kind of a page, I have hidden my domain name which is why you see white spaces, your page will show YOURSITE.COM. (notice the dot/period in the end of the site name?)

 

 

Note:- Your MX entries(mail server entries) can be found under Mail -> Mx Entry

 

STEP 3.b :- FINDING DNS RECORDS (ALTERNATIVE METHOD)

We can find a site's basic DNS details using an online site. A few good and easy to use sites are :-

Who.is

Network-tools

Ping.eu

You will be using the DNS Records service to get the details you need.

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Warning* :- If there you are unsure of ANYTHING, do not touch it. Change in any of the values could cause errors in your website or in the services. For any help with configuration, contact support with login details to both Cpanel and Cloudflare -> support(at)Xisto - Web Hosting(dot)com

 

The first record we will add is the A record for your website. The A record is a DNS setting used to map / connect your site name to the webserver ip / your dedicated ip. It will do the job of making sure yoursite.com points to where you are currently hosted.

 

Select

 

Type "A"

Name = yoursite.com. (Add the dot/period at the end of the website.It is important).

Value = ip you see in Cpanel or in the online DNS record.

TTL = 1 day

 

 

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Do the same for all your records EXCEPT for Nameserver records, these would be given by Cloudflare. And Don't forget the MX records. Your MX records will be based on your mail service

 

 

CPANEL / WEBMAIL / LOCAL MX SETTINGS

 

Type "MX"

Name = yoursite.com. (with dot in end)

mail handled by = yoursite.com. (with dot in end)

with Priority = 0

 

GOOGLE APPS MX SETTINGS (Logic Plan users)

 

Type = MX

 

name = yoursite.com. (Do not forget the dot at the end of name and for mail handled by)

mail handled by = ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. with Priority = 10

mail handled by =ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. with Priority = 20

mail handled by =ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. with Priority = 20

mail handled by =ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. with Priority = 30

mail handled by =ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. with Priority = 30

 

 

An example for CNAME & TXT just in case someone needs help adding these :-

 

CNAME RECORD

 

Type = Cname

Name = www / mail / ftp and so on

is an alias of yoursite.com.

 

 

TXT RECORD

 

Type = TXT

Name = service

Text Record value = "v=spf1 a -all" (with the " symbol)

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STEP 4 :- Choose Initial Settings

Once more self explanatory with the except of the 3 types of optimization they give you with their content delivery network service (CDN)

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STEP 5 :- Update your DNS

At this step, Cloudflare will have provided you a set of custom nameservers, you need to add these where your existing nameservers are.

For this you need to login to your Xisto - Domains / Xisto - Support panel (Xisto - Support is the same place you login to pay your invoices and check your mycents) OR You domain management panel provided by the company that has registered your domain.

Find your domain and change the nameservers to the ones given by Cloudflare

And you are done The service should start working immediately but for complete propagation, please allow 24 hours. Clicking on Details will show you the above steps so if in case you want to add a missing DNS enty, login to your cloudflare account, go to websites and then click on "Details" of the account.

 

If I have missed some information or you'd like to see something more in here, please pm me the details

Edited March 27, 2012 by velma (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

What happens to our site when Cloudflare is down? For example, today at least for a couple hours the entire network has been offline (cloudflare.com, the wiki, the blog, etc.). I've run it through downforeveryoneorjustme.com as well as it shows it offline too.I'm kind of scared now, to switch to where I'd be relying on it, just to find out that when it crashes the site goes offline (due to NS and everything).

[velma 6]

What happens to our site when Cloudflare is down? For example, today at least for a couple hours the entire network has been offline (cloudflare.com, the wiki, the blog, etc.). I've run it through downforeveryoneorjustme.com as well as it shows it offline too.
I'm kind of scared now, to switch to where I'd be relying on it, just to find out that when it crashes the site goes offline (due to NS and everything).

Well, that's how it plays sadly.. Your site is as strong as your DNS provider. If Cloudflare's services were to fluctuate, your site surely would fluctuate.