What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is a third-party service. It sits between your visitors and your website. It keeps copies of your pages on many computers around the world and filters some bad traffic. Ask Hostvento support whether it works with your plan.
Is it free?
Cloudflare has its own plans, including a free one at times. Check the Cloudflare website for current terms. Hostvento does not set its prices.
What is a CDN?
CDN stands for content delivery network. It is a group of servers in many places. A visitor gets your page from the server nearest to them. This is like a shop with many branches instead of one big store.
How do I start using it?
- Make an account on the Cloudflare website.
- Add your domain.
- Check the DNS records that Cloudflare finds.
- Copy the two nameservers it gives you. Nameservers tell the internet where your DNS lives.
- Log in to your client area and open Domains.
- Change the domain's nameservers to those two.
- Wait until Cloudflare says your site is active.
Will my site be down while I switch?
It should not be, if your DNS records are copied correctly. Changes can take some hours to spread.
Does it affect my email?
Only if records are wrong. Make sure your MX records are copied. MX records tell the world where your email goes. Mail records should not be proxied, so set them to DNS only.
I changed my site, but the old version still shows. Why?
Cloudflare kept a saved copy. This is its cache. Log in to Cloudflare and use the option to purge, or clear, the cache. Also clear your own browser cache.
I see a redirect loop or SSL error. What now?
This is often a mismatch in the SSL setting. SSL is the lock that encrypts traffic. In Cloudflare, check the SSL/TLS mode. If your hosting has a valid certificate, a full mode usually works best. Ask support if you are unsure.
How do I turn it off?
- Log in to Cloudflare.
- Pause Cloudflare for the site, or remove the site.
- Set your nameservers back to the ones in your welcome email.
Quick recap
- Cloudflare is a CDN and protection service.
- You use it by changing nameservers.
- Copy all DNS records, especially email ones.
- Purge the cache if old content shows.
- You can switch it off by restoring old nameservers.