Can I get an A record instead of NameServers?

Website, Application, Performance DNS & Network
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Hi, we have Godaddy email so I need a A record instead of a nameserver. Is it possible to get that? Thank you

2

Welcome to the community!

You need MX records for emails, neither A or NS records will work.

You need to create an MX record with the domain name and priority specified by GoDaddy.

Hope it helps!

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3

Not quite sure what you’re asking here.

Lumito was referring to MX records which you need for email. If that’s what you’re meaning then that’s indeed the solution :slightly_smiling_face:

If you mean nameservers (NS records), Cloudflare requires changing your nameservers to use their CDN/WAF/proxy benefits (you can’t use an A record, it’s a different thing).

If you want to keep your email at GoDaddy but change your nameservers you can do that: you just need to write down all of the MX records GoDaddy gives you by default, then add them back in to the Cloudflare dashboard.

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Sorry, the company I work for web site is down. The hosting recommended Cloudflare. Right now on godaddy their is an A record that points to the hosting and other records that point to the godaddy email service. Godaddy says if I change the nameserver it will mess up the email. I don’t understand in Cloudflare how to set up the email to make it so the domain points to the hosting and the email back to godaddy. I had hoped Cloudflare would offer an a records for the hosting part of the website. Thank you

5

Alright. Let me try to clarify a couple things here :slightly_smiling_face:

  • Cloudflare doesn’t do website hosting except Cloudflare Pages which is designed for static or custom websites (not a traditional Wordpress or similar).
  • Instead, Cloudflare sits in front of your website host and protects it, by:
    • (optionally) blocking bots and
    • blocking DDoS attacks and
    • “caching” static resources such as images, which is basically storing them for a short time so the webserver doesn’t have to deal with people accessing the exact same image over and over

So if you’re looking for another host to switch to while your current one is down Cloudflare’s not really going to work for you. If you are looking for protection alongside a website host then Cloudflare is a great option. But otherwise, not really, and I’d recommend another host such as BlueHost.

Secondly, switching your nameservers won’t affect your email. What will affect your email is changing the MX records, which sometimes happens accidently when you change nameservers (and why GoDaddy support might assume this).

To properly change your nameservers to Cloudflare, assuming you want to use them, you can:

  • take a look at the existing MX records at GoDaddy
  • create them on the Cloudflare dashboard before you change nameservers so that there’s no downtime

Usually this will happen automatically when adding a site to Cloudflare, but if it doesn’t you will have to do it manually. If this happens feel free to send the MX details from GoDaddy and we can help show you how to recreate them in Cloudflare.

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I wanted something to sit in front of the website, not new hosting but I don’t think Cloudflare will work in my situation. Thanks

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Cloudflare acts as a reverse proxy, meaning that it sits between your users and your website, providing DDoS, caching and other services, so it might be a good fit for what you need – It does not replace your hosting, which seems to be what you are describing.

Changing nameservers should not be a problem as long as you set/copy the MX records correctly.

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