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Cloudflare

25 articles in this section

This section covers putting Cloudflare in front of a site hosted on ZevsHost without breaking mail or SSL along the way. Nearly every question starts with connecting the domain and the Proxy mode (the "orange cloud"): what happens to DNS records, why an Origin Certificate is needed on the server, and which SSL/TLS mode — Flexible, Full, or Full Strict — actually fits your setup.

From there it moves to settings that genuinely affect speed and resilience: Cache Rules and Edge TTL for edge caching, minification and other speed tricks, plus firewall rules for blocking unwanted IPs and whole countries. Page Rules are shown through concrete scenarios — redirects, forced HTTPS, and cache exceptions for the admin area.

  • Cloudflare Workers — serverless functions running on the edge without your own server
  • Cookie-free Analytics as a partial replacement for regular counters
  • The Cloudflare plugin for WordPress and its recommended settings
  • R2 — storage with no charge for outbound traffic
Cloudflare: What It Is and Why the Free Plan Is Useful Cloudflare — CDN, DDoS protection, DNS, and performance optimization. What the free plan includes and how it speeds up and protects your site. Connecting a Site to Cloudflare: A Step-by-Step Guide How to add a site to Cloudflare: changing NS servers, importing DNS records, choosing a plan, and checking everything works after connecting. Takes 15 minutes. DNS in Cloudflare: Managing Records and Proxy Mode How to manage DNS records in Cloudflare: Proxied vs DNS Only, TTL, adding A/CNAME/MX/TXT records, subdomains, and mail setup. Cloudflare SSL/TLS Modes: Flexible, Full, Full Strict How Cloudflare SSL modes differ: Flexible, Full, and Full Strict. How to pick the right mode and avoid a redirect loop. Cloudflare DDoS Protection: How It Works and Setup How Cloudflare DDoS protection works: automatic attack detection, I'm Under Attack Mode, configuring Security Level and Rate Limiting for your site. Caching in Cloudflare: Setting Up Cache Rules and Edge TTL How to configure caching in Cloudflare: Cache Rules for caching HTML, Edge Cache TTL, cache bypass for dynamic pages, purging the cache, and Cache Analytics. Cloudflare Firewall Rules: Blocking IPs and Countries How to create Cloudflare Firewall rules: block IPs, countries, bots, User-Agents. Protect /wp-login.php, /xmlrpc.php and APIs via WAF Custom Rules. Cloudflare Page Rules: redirects, caching, and security How to use Cloudflare Page Rules: setting up 301/302 redirects, disabling cache for specific URLs, forcing HTTPS, Security Level per page. Speed Optimization via Cloudflare: Minification of JS/CSS How to speed up a site via Cloudflare: Auto Minify, Rocket Loader, Brotli compression, HTTP/2, Early Hints, and Polish for images. Cloudflare Workers: Serverless Functions on the Edge What Cloudflare Workers are, how to write your first Worker in JavaScript, deploy via Wrangler CLI, the free plan, and A/B testing examples. Cloudflare Analytics: Analytics Without Cookies Cloudflare Web Analytics — free, cookie-less analytics, GDPR-compliant. How to connect it, what it shows, and how it differs from Google Analytics. Cloudflare for WordPress: Plugin and Optimal Settings How to configure Cloudflare for WordPress: official plugin, correct visitor IP in logs, cache auto-purge on publish, WooCommerce settings, and troubleshooting. Cloudflare R2: Object Storage With No Egress Fees Cloudflare R2 is an S3-compatible object storage with no egress fees. Free 10 GB plan, bucket creation, file uploads, public access, and WordPress integration. Cloudflare Origin Certificate: 15-Year SSL for Servers Creating and installing a Cloudflare Origin Certificate: issuing it, installing on Nginx/Apache, enabling Full Strict mode, and differences from Let's Encrypt. Cloudflare Tunnel: local server access without a public IP How to use Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared) to publish a local server without open ports: installing cloudflared, creating a tunnel, and setting up the domain. WAF Custom Rules in Cloudflare: Build Your Own Filters WAF Custom Rules in Cloudflare: how to build your own traffic filter, which fields and actions are available, block examples, and log-based testing. Rate Limiting in Cloudflare: Capping Request Frequency Rate Limiting in Cloudflare: how to set a request threshold per period, choose an action on overflow, and tell it apart from WAF Custom Rules and DDoS. Bots in Cloudflare: Bot Fight Mode and Verification Bot management in Cloudflare: how to enable Bot Fight Mode, tell harmful bots from verified search crawlers, and avoid blocking the ones you need. Load Balancing in Cloudflare: Pools and Origin Checks Load Balancing in Cloudflare: how to set up origin server pools, health checks, and failover, and which balancing method fits your setup. Argo Smart Routing and Tiered Cache in Cloudflare Argo Smart Routing and Tiered Cache in Cloudflare: speed up the route to origin, cut the number of requests hitting the server, when to enable, how to test. Cloudflare Images and Stream: media storage and delivery Cloudflare Images and Stream: how to store photos and video off the origin server, resize images on the fly, and deliver clips via HLS. Cloudflare Access: securing an admin panel with Zero Trust Cloudflare Access gates entry to an admin panel by verifying identity before the origin server, with no VPN and no open ports. Managing Cloudflare through the API and Terraform, no clicks How to configure Cloudflare via the REST API and Terraform: tokens, provider setup, DNS records and cache rules as code instead of Dashboard clicks. Cloudflare Email Routing: mail on your domain, no server Cloudflare Email Routing forwards mail from an address on your domain to a personal inbox for free, with no mail server and no own SMTP. Cloudflare 520-525 errors: what they mean and how to fix Cloudflare 520, 521, 522, 524, and 525 errors occur between the edge server and the origin. A breakdown of each code's causes and how to diagnose them.