A Full Guide To Cloudflare

Hello,
I will show you how to easily set up Cloudflare, Edit Records, and Troubleshoot with images!

PLEASE READ BEFORE STARTING!!!


  1. Cloudflare cannot be used on free subdomains from InfinityFree.
  2. You can use Cloudflare on Custom Domains (yoursite.com) and with Custom Sub-Domains (subdomain.yoursite.com).
  3. A video tutorial can be found at the end of this guide, should you get stuck.
  4. You must connect your domain to your InfinityFree account first. Read more here.

Set-Up Cloudflare

  1. Go to Dash.Cloudflare.com and create a new account, or log in to your existing one.

  2. Add a Site (by clicking on the Blue Button or the “Add site” option at the top).

  1. Go to the Domain Registrar of your domain (You can look it up by searching your domain here) and change the Nameservers to the ones provided by Cloudflare.
    (You may have to scroll down on the page to see this box with the nameservers. Note that you may have different nameservers from those shown here.)
    Nameservers - Cloudflare
    Important Note: The Nameservers provided by Cloudflare should be the ONLY 2 nameservers on your domain. Remove all other nameservers!

  2. After changing the Nameservers with your domain register, click the “Check” button at the bottom of the page. Note that it may take up to 72 hours for Cloudflare to detect the change.

  3. Once the nameservers are verified, go to the DNS section of the dashboard.

  4. In the DNS section, click on the blue “ADD RECORD” button, then choose the “A” record type. (NOTE: Steps 6-8 may be done for you by Cloudflare!)

  1. In a new tab, go to dash.infinityfree.com, log in if needed, then select the hosting account you want to add Cloudflare for. Locate the IP address. (NOTE: Steps 6-8 may be done for you by Cloudflare!)
  1. Copy the IP address from the client area (dash.infinityfree.com) and use it to create the following records: (NOTE: Steps 6-8 may be done for you by Cloudflare!)

RECORD #1
TYPE: “A”
CONTENT: “@”
NAME: IP address from dash.infinityfree.com

RECORD #2
TYPE: “A”
CONTENT: “www”
NAME: IP address from dash.infinityfree.com

Note: Keep the cloud orange for both of the records!

  1. Double-check that it looks right! (The yellowed-out text should match all other yellowed-out text.)

  2. If something looks wrong, go back a few steps and see what you missed. If it all looks good, your site should start working within 72 hours. If it has been over 72 hours and it still does not work, try clearing your cache. If clearing the cache does not work, create a new topic in the Hosting Support category.

Yay! Cloudflare is now set up on your Domain!

Set up Cloudflare SSL

Setting up Cloudflare SSL is quite easy! These steps are also outlined in the video below should you get stuck.

  1. Go to the SSL/TLS section on dash.cloudflare.com.

  2. Click on the “Flexible” Setting. If you want to use the “Full” setting (which is more secure), you need to install an SSL certificate first (Self Signed is preferred for use with Cloudflare) - Video - KB article.

  3. Open "SSL/TLS” → “Edge Certificates" in Cloudflare, and enable (Green Slider) the Always Use HTTPS setting.

  4. If you use WordPress, open WordPress Admin and go to Settings → General. Change your URL from http:// to https://. A similar process can be followed if you’re using a script/CMS that has a setting for the website’s URL.

  5. That’s it! (If you go to “https://yoursite.com” it will no longer show the unsecured message!)

OPTIONAL: If someone goes to http://yoursite.com, they will not get the lock icon (They will get the unsecured message). So, you want to have everyone that goes to the unsecured version, automatically get redirected to the secure version! It’s easy to set up too!

Using Cloudflare (The easy way)

In the SSL/TLS → Edge Certificates tab, make sure the setting “Always Use HTTPS” is set to On.

Now, if someone goes to http://yoursite.com, they will be automatically redirected to https://yoursite.com! It’s totally secure now!

With .htaccess
  1. Log in to your website via FTP so you can view its files (using the online file manager or with a desktop client like FileZilla).

  2. If there is a .htaccess file inside of your website’s /htdocs directory (It should NOT say “DO NOT EDIT” at the top!), add this code at the bottom of the file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =http
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
  1. If there is NOT a .htaccess file in /htdocs, download the file below and upload it to your website’s /htdocs directory.

.htaccess (126 Bytes)

  1. That’s it! If you don’t see any changes, clearing your browser’s cache should help!

Now, if someone goes to http://yoursite.com, they will be automatically redirected to https://yoursite.com! It’s totally secure now!

Troubleshoot Cloudflare

What? Cloudflare is not working? Click the arrow next to the text that best matches your issue for an answer. If you cannot get Cloudflare to work, watching the linked video may answer your questions.

My subdomain doesn't work with Cloudflare!

Remember, if you got the sub-domain from InfinityFree, it won’t work with Cloudflare.

If you have a custom subdomain (subdomain.yoursite.com):
A simple fix!
Create a new “A” record in the DNS section of Cloudflare

CONTENT: the name of the sub-domain, so “help” if the domain is help.yoursite.com
VALUE: the IP address of your main domain (Use set-up step #7 to find this)

I get an HTTP 500 error

Make sure you typed everything in correctly, and try clearing your cache or waiting for DNS changes to take effect (up to 72 hours).

The following article from the knowledge base may also help:
Http error 500

SSL not working on my WordPress site

Well, WordPress is a little weird about this.
Make sure you have edited your website’s URL in the admin dashboard to the https:// version of your site. If you’re still facing issues, try installing the “Really Simple SSL” plugin on your WordPress site. If it doesn’t fix your issue either, let us know!

Other

Watch the linked video, reply below, or create a new topic!
Note: If the issue is Cloudflare related, please include a screenshot of your DNS settings.

Did I type something wrong or forgot to add something? Let me know!

Video Tutorial

Final Notes

A big thank you to @TigerMANEK426 and @KangJL for the edits!

31 Likes

Nice work. Should help people better as its more detailed!

Just a few things:

  • .htaccess don’t take 72 hours to work
  • Encourage the use of Full SSL
  • You have mixed CNAME and A records up
8 Likes

You need minimally a self-signed cert in order to use full mode

You can leave this out by using folowing setting in CF:-

  • In the SSL/TLS → Edge Certificates tab, the setting “Always Use HTTPS” is set to On.
14 Likes

My site is still not secure

1 Like

Are you using Cloudflare or the SSL integration in cpanel?

1 Like

cloudflare

Please don’t bring up your issue on multiple topics. I will reply in your original one.

2 Likes

Hi, i’ve done everything like here and my site not working correctly


Everything i’ve descibed here:

You should not have ns records in Cloudflare. Please remove them.

2 Likes

Where can I clear the cache?

1 Like

To clear your computer DNS cache, you can follow this tutorial.

For the DNS cache of various DNS servers around the web, the only thing you can do is waiting until their cache expire, normally less than 72 hours.

4 Likes

The steps that I carried out to make it work were the following

  1. Follow the steps carried out in:
    How to add your own domain to your account - Docs - InfinityFree Forum

2.- The steps mentioned above are correct, each and every one of them

In one of the hosting support post I remember reading that, despite the fact that it is configured in that way (even if it is the correct one), the hosting servers simply would not know how to redirect the requested traffic, because they do not know to what account The domain is linked so it redirects to https://suspended-website.com/(letras)/, then do the previous steps that I mention and then those of this post.

-_- me and then @anon2458064 both wrote articles on this, but good job

7 Likes

I know, I felt I could get more detailed, some did not understand your awesome one.

9 Likes

:slight_smile:

1 Like

So, on a more philosophical note, why should I use cloudflare, and do all that, since I can do it perfectly well with my original domain registrar (by creating a dns zone to help setup ssl with my hosting on InfinityFree)?

Because Cloudflare have advanced security, DDoS prevention, down detection, advance DNS and so much more. It also allows you to set up CA certificates, something you have to pay extra for with most domain providers. Oh, and Cloudflare is free.

6 Likes

Well, there’s some dodgy stuff circulating out there about cloudflare too though… I’m sure you’ve read them…

Cloud flare is a very good company
Heck,you’re even on cloud flare right now
Shopify,etc uses it

Well my sites are definitely not using cloudflare, I know that much.