I see that this question is asked a lot in forums, but I’m just on the initial setup step, and all the discussions (unless I’m misunderstanding) seem to involve plugins and advanced features. I’m wondering if anyone can provide a layperson’s explanation for how to resolve this error.
I purchased my domains through Cloudflare. For all of them, I see an error on the DNS page: “Add an A, AAAA, or CNAME record for www will resolve.”
Do I need to manually add a record for each of these? If so, where would I find the (required fields) name and IPv4 address?
In a case when you purchased a domain name which hadn’t had any since before, and since the domain name is new, it couldn’t contain any of them since before, so in short, yes.
If the domain was already in use since before, meaning it resolved to some IP address in the past and had some Website content, you wouldn’t have to purchase a domain, rather either add it to your Cloudflare account, or transfer to Cloudflare Registrar.
In both cases, there is a step which automatically scans for any kind of existing DNS records and then it adds them with an individual option to edit them in that process. Of course, we can always manage and edit DNS records later in any time from Cloudflare dashboard.
Meaning, you have the control and have to point it to some server/host to load the Website files, WordPress, or some other application.
Behind each hostname, be it cloudflare.com there is an IP address (network one) of the device where the conent is hosted and served to the visitor.
For us, people, it’s easier to remember cloudflare.com than some numbers split by the dots. We couldn’t remember each address, would be difficult.
Your web hosting provider should give you the IP address(es) of your origin host/server to which you point your A www or more DNS records from the DNS tab of Cloudflare dashboard for your domain name.
Or, you create one and then point to some other service where your conent and/or Website is hosted, be it Google Firebase or some other.
Helpful step-by-step tutorial how to add a new DNS record:
Other way would it be to import the DNS records from a file, if we have them exported from some hosting provider’s interface.