How to change to A2 Hosting nameservers on CF?
I don't know if this matters, but to my understanding, the person I'm trying to set up a website for bought the free plan (explains a lot why I'm on here). Does the free plan not let you change nameservers at all? I was told by the A2 Hosting Support that adding DNS records is not the same thing. Sorry I'm a complete n00b at this and I'm not sure how else I can proceed.
9 Replies
I'd preface this with: On a technical level, it is not required to change nameservers to use third party hosting/mail/etc. Sometimes some hosts are lazy/want to make it easier for you, and thus want you to, though
Does the free plan not let you change nameservers at all?Free plan has nothing to do with your domain itself. If you're using a third party registrar, you change the nameservers there and stop using CF/CF DNS and services all together. If you're using Cloudflare Registrar, then you can't change regardless of plan. If you're unsure, send website name (dm is fine) and I can tell you the name of your Registar at least You are indeed using Cloudflare Registrar. It does warn you that you can't change nameservers on registration (not that you understood what it meant). You should still be able to use their web hosting though, looks like people have done it before: https://community.cloudflare.com/t/a2-hosting-and-cloudflare-dns-zones-configuration/190367 You just need to know which records to add. It doesn't look like they have any public tutorials about that, you could always simply ask them though which a/aaaa/cname records to add, to get it working whilst using third party dns
Okay so before I added what A2 Hosting told me to here
and they said I added it to the wrong section
Is that true?
They think you're trying to use their nameservers
in which case, indeed that would be the wrong section, but there is also no right section, so it's the wrong question lol. The question you would want to ask is "How can I use your web hosting with external dns" (I assume you're trying to use their web hosting?)
Ya I am trying to use A2 Hosting for their web hosting. This all started because I purchased the Wordpress web hosting plan and wasn't able to access (what I thought would have been set up already) the WP dashboard. So I asked Support about that and they told me "You have a Run Managed WordPress Web Hosting - alliancedv.com, where the WP is already installed on the domain alliancedv.com, so you do not have to upload the external WP files. But you will not be able to access it now, as the DNS of the domain is not resolving. First, you need to update the domain nameservers from Cloudflare(the domain registrar) to the following: <insert A2hosting DNS strings>"
So that's what lead me to this path I guess.
Would external DNS help with this?
Would external DNS help with this?Sorry, to clarify, "External DNS" is what they would call Cloudflare DNS Basically your options are: 1. Ask a2shosting what a/aaaa/cname records to add, to continue to use external/Cloudflare dns, and benefit from Cloudflare's proxy/caching/features/etc 2. Stop using Cloudflare entirely, transfer domain to another registrar like spaceship, porkbun, etc, that lets you use any nameservers* * for 30 days after you register a domain, you can't transfer to another registrar, transfer lock per ICANN rules
Okay. I will msg A2Hosting support and see what they say 😩
And thank you again for explaining and helping me with this so far!
Not entirely sure, but does this help? https://www.a2hosting.com/kb/getting-started-guide/configuring-domain-settings/find-your-hosting-ip-address/
How to find the IP address for your hosting account
Knowing your account's IP address is useful for viewing your website before DNS propagation is complete, or for managing your DNS settings.