What happens if I add the domain name to Cloudflare services but no name servers on the free service?
How do responses look in the interim period when my name servers are still at the old provider?
Thank you.
Some sites that I see set up, have non-Cloudflare name servers and the whois on the site’s domain returns Cloudflare.
Are these customers using the custom name servers ?
Or is there another way to point the domain at Cloudflare with the free service and keep non-Cloudflare name servers?
6.1 in the Domain Registration Agreement states that you cannot change the nameservers:
6.1 Nameservers . Registrant agrees to use Cloudflare’s nameservers. REGISTRANT ACKNOWLEDGES AND AGREES THAT IT MAY NOT CHANGE THE NAMESERVERS ON THE REGISTRAR SERVICES, AND THAT IT MUST TRANSFER TO A THIRD PARTY REGISTRAR IF IT WISHES TO CHANGE NAMESERVERS.
You’ll either need to use Cloudflare’s DNS and get a list of the required records from your host, or transfer your domain elsewhere to change the nameservers.
Thank you for the referral link.
I guess I don’t understand how some whois searches on some sites have a domain registered at a third party provider, have an IP at another company, name servers at non-Cloudflare owned company on a non Cloudflare IP, BUT when you do a whois, it says Cloudflare in the WHOIS record.
I think the sites in these situations are routing through some service at Cloudflare, but can’t figure it out when nameservers or IP addresses do not seem to be owned by Cloudflare. I thought maybe this was the reverse proxy or a forward proxy set up on the front facing domain. Although it is not apparent to me which plan would correlate with this type of whois result.
As I understand it, the Cloudflare dos protection and reverse proxy can’t work unless you choose Cloudflare nameservers OR you use third party name servers as a custom set up under one of the fee based plans, right?
Please share examples of domains that you see registered with Cloudflare registrar that do not have Cloudflare nameservers assigned.
Hi.
I had my facts a little off above after I went to try to find an example today. I guess these domains I give below are not live sites yet. If I find a live site I’ll update. For now I just have these 2 I’ve been seeing on the socials…
I’ve been watching security researchers over the weekend reporting these two and it got me thinking about my own set up since I don’t want to look like a malicious actor. (j2update[.]cc and nsdps[.]cc)
(j2update[.]cc)
- I don’t think this site is yet active and looks like it is in the process of being set up and activated. Scanners show a 400 error.
- the primary domain is registered at NameCheap
- the IP hosting the domain resolves to Cloudflare
- the name servers domains are at ChangeIP
- the IP of the name servers is at Hostinger
For this example, since Cloudflare owns the IP address for the primary domain, but not the nameservers, or the IP where the name servers are located, is it like the beginning of being set up when the domain gets added to Cloudflare as step 1?
Another example posted by the security researcher: (nsdps[.]cc)
- I don’t think this site is live yet either. It is showing http 400 Error.
- the primary domain is registered at Hosting Concepts B.V. but the IP address for this domain is Cloudflare
-the name servers are at ChangeIP and on an IP at Hostinger
So, in these examples, would the Cloudflare protection not work since the name servers are still at a non-Cloudflare provider, and the site is not live?
I was thinking somehow the ddos protection was working only after adding the domain to Cloudflare. But maybe nothing is happening since the sites aren’t live, idk.
Thanks for helping sort through what my site will look like in WHOIS as I go through the set up.
Akismet hid my post. We’ll see if a staff member responds to it. Thank you.
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It happens sometimes. Usually it gets sorted out before too long.
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