How to activate and setup Cloudflare for my domain?

Cloudflare used to offer a cPanel plugin so this was set up in cPanel, but as they have added features the plugin lagged and they now want everyone to set up through their own website. In order to configure Cloudflare for a domain:

  • Go to https://cloudflare.com
  • Login to your account, or if you don't have one, setup an account.
  • Add your domain name. Cloudflare will scan your DNS records, and will typically find all of them. If it doesn't find any let us know.
  • Cloudflare will then give you new nameservers, and you edit your nameservers to point there.

If you setup any sites with them when the cPanel plugin was functional this is effectively the same process.

 

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Cloudflare is a good option for helping to speed up sites (particularly if you have global visitors) and does also provide an extra layer of security. To set it up you switch to their nameservers (they automatically import your existing DNS records) and then when requests are made to your site they go via Cloudflare's system.

If you want to use CloudFlare, follow the steps below:

  • Login to cPanel for the relevant site as mentioned in the link https://secure.lightningbase.com/index.php/knowledgebase/6/How-to-Access-cPanel.html.

  • Click the CloudFlare icon, and either create a new account (if you don't have one), or login with your CloudFlare credentials.

  • Choose the 'Provision Domain with Full Zone Setup' on the right-hand side.

  • They will then give you new nameservers, go to your registrar and switch to those.

  • Once you have switched nameservers full management becomes available in cPanel. A few things to look at:
    --- Under the 'Performance' area the 'Railgun' setting should show an option, it defaults to off but should be enabled.
    --- Also under 'Performance' is a 'Browser Cache Expiration' setting. It defaults to 4 hours, setting it to at least a few days will improve performance and isn't a problem unless you edit .css/.js files without changing their filenames.

 

The free plan is helpful, you even get their Railgun service when hosting at Lightning Base (which normally requires the $200/month business plan). The Pro plan can also be beneficial, the remote webapp firewall is particularly helpful. Typically it makes sense to use the free plan and if you like it consider the paid option.

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