Secure, speed up, and stabilize your website by moving your domain to Cloudflare. This guide walks you through the setup process step-by-step.
What is Cloudflare? #
Cloudflare is a domain hosting service that improves the security, performance, and reliability of websites across the internet. By acting as an intermediary between your server and your visitors, Cloudflare protects your site from malicious attacks, optimizes content delivery, and increases loading speeds. Before any MediaOS-connected site can officially go live, it is crucial that the domain is fully moved over to Cloudflare.
Getting the DNS Moved Over to Cloudflare #
To begin, navigate to Cloudflare.com and click Sign Up in the upper-right corner of the homepage. Create an account by entering your email address and setting a password. Once signed in, click Get Started to begin setting up your domain.
Enter the domain name of your website (without including www.) and click Continue. When prompted to choose a plan, select the Free option to proceed.
Next, open your previous DNS hosting platform (for example, InMotion Hosting) in a separate window and place it side-by-side with your Cloudflare setup screen. Carefully review the DNS records. Ensure that every record listed in your old DNS matches what appears in Cloudflare. If you notice any missing records, click Add Record in Cloudflare and manually enter the correct fields based on your previous hosting platform.
Tip: For best practice, expand the DNS record list from your previous provider and take a screenshot before making changes.
After verifying your DNS records, scroll down and click Continue in Cloudflare. On the next screen, you will see a section titled Your Assigned Cloudflare Name Servers. These will typically be names like gloria.ns.cloudflare.com and robert.ns.cloudflare.com.
Next, go to your domain registrar—the company where your domain name is currently registered (such as NameSilo, GoDaddy, or similar). Within your registrar’s dashboard, navigate to the Name Servers section. Replace the existing name servers with the new Cloudflare-provided ones. Remove any old name servers that are no longer needed.
Once you have updated the name servers, return to Cloudflare. Click your Profile Icon in the upper-right corner and select Account Home. From there, open the Main Menu and click Security Center, then Manage Account > Members.
To give MediaOS support team access, click Invite, and add the appropriate email address provided by MediaOS Support (please contact Support if you have not received this email address yet). Set the invitation permissions to Operator, Include All Domains, and then click Continue to Summary. Review the invitation details and click Invite to complete the process.
Once all of these steps are finished, Cloudflare will begin protecting and optimizing your website while also allowing MediaOS to assist with any future domain or DNS-related management needs.
