Point a Cloudflare domain at your church website

Do this

1. 1Publish your site first. Cloudflare applies the change right away — your old site goes within a few minutes of saving.
2. 2Domains → your domain → DNS → Records.
3. 3Find the row whose Name is your domain and whose Type is A or CNAME. Click Edit. Set Type to A. If there is no such row, click Add record, Type A, Name @.
4. 4IPv4 address: the value from the domain screen. Leave TTL on Auto. Leave Comment and Tags blank.
5. 5Set Proxy status to DNS only. The cloud turns grey. Save.
6. 6Find the row whose Name is www and whose Type is A or CNAME. Click Edit. Set Type to CNAME. If there is no such row, click Add record, Type CNAME, Name www.
7. 7Target: the value from the domain screen. Set Proxy status to DNS only. Save.
8. 8Back to the domain screen. It says Live on its own.

3 traps

• Orange cloudCloudflare proxies A and CNAME records by default. Proxied breaks us — the domain screen keeps saying it is not configured. Proxy status must read DNS only on both rows.
• Edit, do not addCloudflare copied your old host's records in when the domain was added, so both rows almost certainly already exist. A second A row at the apex saves without complaint and the site then works about half the time. After saving, the apex row may show @ or your full domain. Either is right.
• Zone not ActiveOpen the domain's Overview page. It must say Active. If it says Pending Nameserver Update or Finish setup, stop. Your domain still answers from your old DNS provider and nothing saved here is read. Add the two records at that provider instead. Do not change nameservers.

Do not touch

MX · TXT. MX is your church email — deleting one stops mail silently. If an MX Content is your bare domain, stop and tell us before you save the A row. Leave SSL/TLS, Rules and DNSSEC alone.

Not working

• Nothing after a few minutesOverview says Finish setup or Pending Nameserver Update. Your domain still answers from your old DNS provider. Add the two records there instead.
• Our domain screen says not configuredProxy status is still Proxied. Set both rows to DNS only.
• Too many redirectsCloudflare is still proxying. Set both rows to DNS only.
• Cloudflare refused the recordA row with that name already exists — Cloudflare will not put a CNAME beside an A. Click Edit on that row. Change its Type.
• Site works, then does not, then doesTwo A rows at the apex. Delete the one whose Content is not the value on the domain screen. Delete nothing else.
• Email stoppedAn MX record was edited. Tell us, do not keep changing.