CloudFlare DNS. Domain Email Only, No A record, No Website. Want to forward http to external URL

Website, Application, Performance Getting Started
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1

I want to use Cloudflare as my DNS service (Free). But I want to forward all my HTTP traffic to an external website but I have setup custom MX records. MX working fine. HTTP not.

Basically my company has a 2nd domain name that I want to use as an email domain for but I dont want to setup another http or web hosting account. I simply want to forward the http traffic to our existing domain but treat the MX seperate. I tried to use page rules but didnt work. What should my A record be if I am using Cloudflare for DNS and want to forward my http and maintain custom MX.

2

As far as I know, you’ll still need a web server.

So, I would recommend you to use Netlify. Netlify provides static web hosting for free. After signing up, you can setup custom domain and then enter the CNAME to Cloudflare DNS. Then, you can then setup the redirect to your 2nd domain, with either Cloudflare’s Page Rules or Netlify’s _redirects.

3

When I want a domain to point somewhere else, I’d set up an A record that points to your company website IP address. Make sure it’s set for Orange Cloud :orange: (this is just a placeholder to get Cloudflare to accept HTTP requests to your second domain). Then I go to Page rules and add: seconddomain.com with a setting to Forward URL to your company’s existing domain.

4

Just set the A record to IP 127.0.0.1 and ORANGE cloud (so Cloudflare will parse the requests), then set a page rule to do the redirect to the primary domain’s URL.

5

The record has to be internet routable or we’ll error when you try to orange cloud… but otherwise @saul’s strategy is the way I’d do it. :slight_smile: