Cloudflare sits in front of your website to provide a free global CDN, caching, and DDoS protection while your site stays hosted on NairoHost. Here is how to set it up correctly.
How It Works
Instead of using NairoHost nameservers, your domain uses Cloudflare nameservers. Cloudflare then proxies traffic to your NairoHost server using DNS records you import.
Step 1: Add Your Site to Cloudflare
- Create a free account at cloudflare.com
- Click Add a site and enter your domain
- Cloudflare scans and imports your existing DNS records
Step 2: Verify Your Records
Make sure these point to NairoHost:
- An A record for
@pointing to your hosting server IP (find it in cPanel under Server Information) - A CNAME for
wwwpointing to your domain - Your MX records for email, set to DNS only (grey cloud) so mail is not proxied
Step 3: Update Nameservers
Cloudflare gives you two nameservers. Log in to your registrar (or KENIC for .co.ke) and replace the existing nameservers with Cloudflare's.
Step 4: Configure SSL
In Cloudflare, set SSL mode to Full (strict) so it works with the AutoSSL certificate already on your NairoHost account.
Important: Keep email DNS records on DNS only. Proxying MX or mail subdomains through Cloudflare will break email delivery.
Propagation takes a few hours, after which your site benefits from Cloudflare's network while remaining hosted with us.