Know nothing but considering Cloudflare for free SSL
Be me
Know barely anything about web development but successfully register and host websites for 13 years at namecheap
Namecheap now has expensive and onerous SSL purchase, install, and renewal process
Reddit told me cloudflare is good
BUT...
What is cloudflare?? Is it a hosting alternative?? When I "add a site" to cloudflare, am I transferring hosting or registration to cloudflare? Or if I add my site to cloudflare I dunno is it like running my traffic through another layer, but it's still registered and hosted on namecheap?
CAN...
Someone who knows nothing successfully set up my sites on cloudflare?
7 Replies
cloudflare is a cdn, they also offer free webhosting through cloudflare pages and offer registrar services too
generally cloudflare sits between the customer and your website but it can also host your site too
so I could keep my hosting and registration but cloudflare would... be a layer of goodness
and provide ssl
yes
v helpful thank you
I already got confused by it asking me if the dns records look correct... would I just keep whatever was already there with namecheap?
yes
if you want to use cloudflare ssl make sure they are proxied (orange cloud)
each DNS record needs to have an orange cloud?
maybe there's a good DNS record readup I can look at
MX SERV AND TXT does not have the cloud
only A/AAAA
there are probably some getting started with cloudflare guides/moving to cloudflare
youd have to google them or something