Pointing Cloudflare to First Arriving Website Hosting

Modified on Wed, 13 Mar at 1:30 PM

How to point Cloudflare DNS records to First Arriving


Adding DNS records at Cloudflare

The first step is to log into Cloudflare and navigate to the DNS section of your account.

A Records

You will need two A records for your domain which we will provide you. Remove any existing A records.

  1. Type: A, Name: (your domain name or @), Content: IP Address #1
  2. Type: A, Name: (your domain name or @), Content: IP Address #2

CNAME Record

Additionally, you will need a CNAME record that directs www to your domain name.

  1. Type: CNAME, Name: www, Content: (your domain name i.e. domain.com)

Alternatively, you may add two additional A records for www, using the same IP addresses, instead of a CNAME.

Ultimately, your DNS records will look similar to the following.

Screenshot of Cloudflare DNS settings.

Please refer to Cloudflare’s DNS documentation for additional access and configuration information.


SSL Settings

To prevent conflicts and redirect loops, it’s necessary to ensure your Cloudflare SSL setting is configured to Full.

Screenshot of Cloudflare SSL settings, set to Full.

Additionally, under the SSL/TLS -> Edge Certificate settings, it may be necessary to disable Always use HTTPS.

Screenshot of Cloudflare's Always use HTTPS setting.

The Automatic HTTPS Rewrites Setting, also under SSL/TLS -> Edge Certificates, may also cause conflicts and sometimes must be disabled.

Screenshot of Cloudflare's Automatic HTTPS Rewrites setting.

Disable Proxying

To ensure your site gets the most out of DDoS protections, WAF, and load balancing, we recommend disabling Cloudflare’s proxy. This means the site will be served directly by us. Note that certain Cloudflare features may rely on their proxy service; however, we highly recommend disabling it.

The proxy can be disabled while adding or editing a DNS record at Cloudflare. Each DNS record entry should have the proxy status set to DNS Only

Screenshot of Cloudflare's DNS proxy status setting.