Cloudflare is a U.S.-based company that offers a range of benefits for domain owners, including DDoS protection, a web application firewall, DNS server, reverse proxy, SSL certificate, and more. These features can improve both the speed and security of your website. In this article, you’ll learn how to set up Cloudflare on your domain with Sered.
How does Cloudflare work?
To use Cloudflare, you need to have your domain already active and working with Sered, since Cloudflare will connect to it and copy all the DNS content.
If the domain is registered with us, simply check that your domain is active and the Sered DNS are propagated (verify that the website loads).
If the domain is with another registrar, first set it up with the Sered DNS and wait for propagation—meaning your site already shows the content hosted on Sered.
Our DNS are:
dns1.sered.net 185.37.231.10
dns2.sered.net 185.162.170.22
dns3.sered.net 185.125.78.35
dns4.sered.net 193.84.177.125
Please note that some domain providers only need the DNS, while others also require the IP address—hence why we provide both.
Propagation usually takes from 2 to 12 hours, sometimes up to 24 hours, to fully integrate with your hosting on Sered. You can check your site’s DNS propagation status during the day using the following link: Check DNS Propagation.
Once your domain is active, it’s time to add it to the Cloudflare panel.
Steps to Configure a Domain in Cloudflare
Log in to your Cloudflare account and click “Get Started” in the middle of the page to begin configuration, or click “Add Site” at the top.
Enter your domain and click “Continue.”
Select the plan you want; in this tutorial, we’ll use the free plan. Then click “Continue.”
Cloudflare will run a quick scan to detect your domain’s DNS records and automatically recreate them on its platform if any are found. Continue by clicking “Continue.”
On the new screen, you’ll find the name servers you must enter in your domain to link it with Cloudflare. Change your domain’s DNS in the platform where it’s registered following the appropriate instructions. If you registered your domain with us, follow our guide: How to change a domain’s DNS in Sered.
Once you’ve changed the DNS, click “Done, Check Name Servers.”
That’s it! The process may take a few minutes, but once completed, you should receive a confirmation. Your domain will be operational with Cloudflare as the DNS server. Don’t forget to account for propagation time for it to work optimally worldwide.
Note: Email Service Configuration
In some cases, your domain’s email service may be affected by Cloudflare’s proxy. Below is a guide to solve this issue.
If you use cPanel Webmail in Sered and experience problems receiving email when using Cloudflare with your domain, it may be due to Cloudflare masking the email record. This means when someone tries to trace the origin IP of an email, Cloudflare IPs show instead of the real IPs, which can cause email issues. Fortunately, this has a simple fix.
Steps:
Go to the DNS tab of your domain in Cloudflare.
Locate the MX record, which will point to a specific value. Check if that value is present in other records.
If the MX record points to a subdomain (e.g., MX > mail.yourdomain), look for an A or CNAME record named “mail” and disable the proxy.
If the MX record points to the domain itself (e.g., MX > yourdomain.com), disable the proxy on the A record with the domain name.
With the proxy disabled, your email service should work normally.
Done! By following these steps, you’ll improve your Cloudflare configuration for email service and avoid future problems.
If you encounter any difficulty or have questions, don’t hesitate to contact our technical support team at [email protected] or via live chat from your client area for further assistance.