DNS records correctly added, not pointing to Squarespace. Proxy issue?

Website, Application, Performance DNS & Network
1

What is the name of the domain?

What is the issue you’re encountering

DNS not propagating

What steps have you taken to resolve the issue?

added a manual txt entry, so now you can go to the domain, but it doesnt have the rest of the dns correctly setup

What feature, service or problem is this related to?

DNS records

What are the steps to reproduce the issue?

Here’s what they sent me yesterday

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out! I’m [name], writing in from Hawai’i, and I’ll be helping with your inquiry.

I understand that you’re having trouble connecting your Cloudflare domain goannadigital com to your Squarespace site at [site]. Thanks for providing those screenshots!

I strangely was able to access your site, as seen here:

goannadigital com

However, I did notice that your domain’s not connecting properly, just like you shared in your screenshot of this DNS settings propagation page:

[site]
Based on your DNS settings at Cloudflare, you’ve added in the correct DNS records and there doesn’t seem to be any conflicting records. However, when I search up the propagated DNS on a DNS propagation checker tool, our Squarespace records don’t seem to be propagating as seen here:

Zight 2024-12-21 at 3.10.08 PM (click link to view screenshot)
Zight 2024-12-21 at 3.10.33 PM (click link to view screenshot)

You can also view that directly here:
whatsmydns

The IP addresses [address] and [address] appears, however, those are not our IP addresses.

I highly recommend checking with Cloudflare to see if the proxy is what’s causing the issue. Because we don’t have visibility to your domain’s DNS (aside from your screenshot), it’d be best to seek additional advice from Cloudflare directly. You can ask them why the records aren’t propagating.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Best Wishes,

[name]
She/Her/Hers
Sippin’ some hot cocoa by the beach

2

Without Cloudflare, or with Unproxied (:grey:) / DNS-only records: Visitor ↔ Web server
With Proxied (:orange:) records: Visitor ↔ Cloudflare ↔ Web server

The way the second one works, is by responding to the public (“propagating DNS”) with IP addresses of Cloudflare, so that Cloudflare can protect your site, and/or otherwise give you many of the other potential benefits (caching, WAF, et al).

Most of these tools are checking the DNS propagation, and verifying that DNS is responding with their own IP addresses, which it won’t be doing with Proxied (:orange:) records.

Some hosting providers will unfortunately only activate the website when they see their own IP addresses.

Or similarly, be deactivating the website, when they are no longer seeing their IP addresses.

In those scenarios, you won’t be able to use Proxied (:orange:) records with that specific hosting provider.

I can confirm that I am also able to reach your website.

If Squarespace’s tools are claiming that your DNS isn’t propagating, but your website is working just fine, then I would just ignore it.

If you (or your hosting provider) require the DNS record(s) to propagate and show exactly what they are asking you to set, … then you will need to set the relevant DNS record(s) to Unproxied (:grey:) / DNS-only.

Note: Cloudflare will only act as a DNS provider, won’t be able to defend you against DDoS attacks, and you’re unable to use WAF/Firewall rules, Redirect Rules, and so forth, with a such configuration.

3

Thanks heaps for the detailed response.

This all makes sense - I will contact Squarespace again and ask if it is necessary to turn off the proxy or ok to keep as-is.

Thanks for helping, will update ASAP

1 Like
4

Hi they replied this

Ren K. (Squarespace)

Dec 22, 2024, 4:55 PM EST

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out to Squarespace Customer Support. My name is Ren and I’ll be assisting you while my colleague is away.

I’ve reviewed the details of your ticket and will ensure a smooth continuation from where we last left off.

With the way your domain is currently set up with your Squarespace site, Cloudflare’s proxies will continue to conflict with our Squarespace website records which need to be found by our system in order for the site to function properly

Removing Cloudflare proxies would also remove their security features from the domain. This is mentioned in our guide here:

However, since your site seems to be working properly with your current setup, even though there are DNS errors shown on your site, I recommend leaving the connection as is.

As long as Cloudflare’s proxy records are working correctly, then I would say it’s safe to leave the site errors as is. If you receive notice that your Cloudflare proxies are no longer working through the domain then at that point, I would recommend reaching out to Cloudflare for alternative connections.

I hope this information finds you well. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Best regards,

Ren K.

https://support.squarespace.com

Should I keep or turn off the proxy features, if Squarespace is supposedly offering the same or similar security features?

I am not conducting any transactions on this website, it is simply to show the work we have done for marketing projects to prospective clients

5

The only thing I see, that Squarespace claim to offer, is SSL.

Cloudflare has low latency in a lot of locations worldwide, which Squarespace doesn’t.

So static content of your website (e.g. CSS/stylesheets, images, et al) may be able to be cached on Cloudflare, and actually have the potential of speeding up your website, depending on your website’s configuration.

Seems like the Squarespace agent said the same, as I did above.

Since the website is working perfectly fine, I will recommend you to keep the Proxy (:orange:) status set, and just ignore the warnings from the Squarespace Dashboard.

1 Like
6

Thanks @DarkDeviL for clarifying everything. I will follow your recommendations and keep as it. Much appreciated man :slight_smile:

1 Like
7

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