New user, DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN and I don't understand what I'm doing wrong

[carrieott00]

What is the name of the domain?

otteditorialcom

What is the error number?

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

What is the issue you’re encountering

I have read all sorts of community stuff about how to fix this but I just do NOT understand how any of this website backend works and I’m overwhelmed. Can somebody please explain this to me like I’m five?

What steps have you taken to resolve the issue?

Hi everyone, I’m sorry to bother but I’m just so overwhelmed. I set up a website on Cloudflare but now I’m getting the DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN error. I don’t understand any of this backend stuff; I’m completely new to websites, and I’m trying my best to learn through the help articles but there’s so much jargon that I’m having a very hard time understanding what to do. I’ve added A and AAAA things for both the @ and the www.

[fritex]

Greetings,

Thank you for asking.

@carrieott00

otteditorial.com

Currently, I receive Error 1000: DNS points to prohibited IP when I visit your Website.

More useful information about this error why and how it appears and how to resolve it could be read at the article from below.

Troubleshooting Cloudflare 1XXX errors | Cloudflare Support docs

@carrieott00

I’m completely new to websites, and I’m trying my best to learn

It seems like your A @ and A www or even AAAA records are pointing to a Cloudflare IP, which could occure in the process of scanning for any existing DNS records while adding your domain name to your Cloudflare account.

Below steps would help you with this case:

1. Go to your Cloudflare dashboard.
2. Select your site.
3. Navigate to the DNS menu.
4. Identify any records that point to Cloudflare IPs and replace these IPs with the one where your website is hosted (origin host/server).
5. Save your changes.

In case you don’t know which IP or DNS records you need, I’d suggest to ask your web hosting provider for this. If you don’t have a hosting for your Website yet, then there are other solutions.

Helpful article about managing DNS records at Cloudflare:

Manage DNS records | Cloudflare DNS docs

[carrieott00]

So there is a lot here that I don’t understand. I’ll break down my questions:

“Replace these IPs with the ones where your website is hosted.” Is that not Cloudflare? How would I find that out? How do I know who my web hosting provider is; I thought it was Cloudflare.

“Identify any records that point to Cloudflare IPs.” How would I know which ones those are? Do they have any identifying features?

[fritex]

@carrieott00

How would I find that out? How do I know who my web hosting provider is

Each of the websites is located onto the phisical device connected to the Internet.
Out there on the market, there are companies (providers) which offer such services to purchase hosting package from them. Or we can purchase the device in a whole (pay more for it), or a part of it, etc.

May I ask if you have your content (HTML documents, images, other files) located somewhere yet, or not? Maybe you are still developing your Website, or someone else is doing it for you? If so, they’ll either provide you all the files, or ask you to provide them the information where to store and upload them so they’d be available to everyone on the Internet.

It’s like buying a bucket and putting your fruits from your garden into it, placing the bucket with fruits onto the table and offering it to anyone on the street who passes by to see how they look like and if someone ask you some question, you provide the answer and information to them
In other words, you need a website, hosting and domain so other would be able to find what you offer and read your content to find out helpful information for them.

@carrieott00

I thought it was Cloudflare.

Currently, Cloudflare does not offer a standard and usual web hosting service like web hosting service providers such as Hostgator, GoDaddy, and similar which you do need at first sight.

However, despite this, there are few available options to store and upload files to Cloudflare (files, images, connect 3rd-party service, streaming videos, etc.).

@carrieott00

How would I know which ones those are?

At the DNS tab of Cloudflare dashboard for your domain name they should be listed in a table view.

Example how to identify them:

@carrieott00

I’ve added A and AAAA things for both the @ and the www.

Seems like you’ve done those steps and are a bit familiar with them already.

[carrieott00]

It seems like Bluehost is my host upon further research, but I don’t want it to be them, and that was the whole reason I moved to Cloudflare. Apparently that was a mistake, but I’m here now, so let’s make the best of it. So I need a new webhost now? I thought Cloudflare did that for free.

[fritex]

@carrieott00

So I need a new webhost now?

May I ask what kind of content you’re having? Possibly you could levarage Cloudflare’s products like Pages for this without the need of hosting. Could be I am wrong, but let’s determine it so I could answer back.

[carrieott00]

My website is super simple, basically just a static page. I don’t need it to do anything fancy, I just want it to appear when someone types in the address. It’s basically just a biography of me. I can list a contact email on it instead of having a separate Contact Me page if that means that I can use a free service. It’s just the most bare bones thing.

[fritex]

Sounds awesome! Just like a simple CV as a HTML document (webpage) with text and possibly few images.

Cloudflare Pages are perfect for this and can help us here if so.
There’s no need for purchasing a hosting then.

Below link contains step-by-step instructions how to upload your files (or a zip file) of index.html and corresponding files (if you have them separately like CSS for styling, JS for some dynamic animations, etc., and images as well) through the Cloudflare dashboard.

Direct Upload | Cloudflare Pages docs

Another helpful link here is how to simply connect your domain to your Pages:

Custom domains | Cloudflare Pages docs

Please, let me know how it goes! Take your time.

[carrieott00]

Thank you so much for all your help; you are the only one who has been able to make this accessible. I copied the files from my website (as downloaded from iPage) to the Pages page, but when I click to visit it, it says that it cannot be found, so I cannot see if the files are working right. Thus, a few questions:

1. If I use pages, do I still need to pay for my regular .com domain?
2. Do I need to worry about linking my IP address like before if we use Pages?

I’ll keep working on it in the meantime.

[fritex]

@carrieott00

(as downloaded from iPage)

You might have to double-check the structure, since different web hosting providers have it identically, but depending of the feature and hosting, the file which you’ve downloaded could contain much more than needed (even sometimes emails and other settings).

However, for Cloudflare Pages, ideally would be like I know to keep and make things simple:

• main folder → named website
  • index.html → the main file which contains all the stuff needed (text, linked resources, etc.)
  • CSS directory → for any 3rd-party CSS stylings
  • JS directory → for any scripts I have
  • images directory → I put my images and icons here

After that structure, I make a zip archive from the “main folder” and then upload my zip to the Cloudflare Dashboard → Pages via Drag & Drop from my desktop.

@carrieott00

If I use pages, do I still need to pay for my regular .com domain?

Yes, you have to pay your domain name to your domain registrar (depending on the extension like .com, .eu etc., could be up to 10$/year).

@carrieott00

Do I need to worry about linking my IP address like before if we use Pages?

If we follow the instructions from linked articles of “Custom Domains”, linking your domain with Cloudflare Pages is done within few minutes and with few clicks. No need to worry about.

No worries. Please, feel free to write back and ask questions.

[carrieott00]

I am trying to change the files for the Pages site, but it says I cannot modify them or even delete it because it is my active deployment. I want to start over with your suggestion but it wont’ let me. Am I looking in the wrong place? I am in productions under deployment.

[fritex]

If you’ve downloaded them from iPage and if it is an archive file, I’d suggest if you can sort this out on your desktop

@carrieott00

Am I looking in the wrong place? I am in productions under deployment.

Currently, I am afraid via Dashboard we cannot do such actions since there is no visual editor to do it.

However, we can do it locally on our device (PC, notebook) on desktop and re-upload again which would apply and overwrite the old.

My suggestion:

1. Re-order this at your desktop
2. Hit “Create new deployment”
3. Upload new modified zip archive
4. Deploy

[carrieott00]

Thank you! So I’ve done this, and now when I try to visit the site, it gives a 404 that it doesn’t exist. It says “no webpage was found for the website address”

[fritex]

Bravo! You’re so close!

@carrieott00

404

I can see this

May I ask to check if you’ve got the index.html file correctly named and if it was placed (located) at the “main folder” as well?

You could share a screenshot of the “Assets uploaded”.

Click on View Details:

And then there should be index.html (example from below):

[carrieott00]

I think we’re close! I adjusted based on your image and now it’s attempting to load the website the way I remember it, but now it just loads forever. I’ve tried to turn off everything on the backend that I think could be causing it to be slow; any ideas?

[fritex]

When I open Developer Tools and check the Console & Network tab, there seems to be some errors while trying to load below files:

CSS
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/wpstyles.css

JS
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/jquery.js
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/jquery.event.move.js
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/jquery.event.swipe.js
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/jquery.wpslider.js
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/jquery.wpslider.js

Fonts
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/wp017b9ebd.ttf
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/wp34ec1b7f.ttf
https://otteditorial.com/wpscripts/wpc32525fd.ttf

Wonder if it’s trying to load them, but wpscripts is now “js” and “css” folders which you have? Or we’re missing them somehow in between

[carrieott00]

I recompiled the files and created a new instance, and the site now loads – but it’s very not correct, haha. I don’t mind if it just has the text in sections that don’t do the fancy image scrolling, but I’m not sure what to change to do that.

[fritex]

When I delete cache & cookies, reload your Website, seems much better!

Slider text/scrolling at the header works as well.

See here:

Only logo is missing → or the path to this is just logo, should be images/logo or somewhere else?; we’d have to find and correct

[carrieott00]

Words cannot express how little I care about the logo after this whole process, haha! Thank you SO much for all your help; I never would have figured this out on my own. So now, I just have to continue to pay for my .com every year and I don’t need to do anything else, right? I really appreciate all the time you took out of your day to help!

[fritex]

@carrieott00

I just have to continue to pay for my .com every year and I don’t need to do anything else, right?

Correct. You can even pay in advance for another year or more (up to 10 in total).
However, maybe it’s easier to pay each year.

In case you need to update your Website (CV), consider having a copy of latest changes made localy on your device (PC, notebook …) so you can always make those changes as needed, upload and deploy them.

I am happy to assist you!
Please, feel free to write back, ask questions and create more topics for help in future.