Bluehost Web Hosting Help

Do I Need to Change My Name Server to Use CloudFlare?

When you change your domain's name servers to CloudFlare name servers, you keep your current hosting provider and registrar; but this allows CloudFlare to become your DNS provider. CloudFlare is then able to route potentially malicious traffic away from your site before it reaches your server.

CloudFlare can be accessed in two ways: through cPanel (basic mode) or by visiting CloudFlare directly (advanced mode). If you signed up for CloudFlare through cPanel, you should not change your name servers.

If you signed up for CloudFlare directly, you must change your name servers to use CloudFlare. Once your name servers are changed, any changes you make in cPanel will have to be made to the zone file containing CloudFlare. Advanced mode is only recommended for advanced users who cannot make the redirections that basic mode demands. If you attempt to add a domain via advanced mode, you will not be able to add the domain via basic mode until you remove it from the CloudFlare dashboard.

For more information about CloudFlare, read our article on:

Knowledgebase Article 217,428 views bookmark tags: cloudflare nameserver


Was this resource helpful?

Did this resolve your issue?


Please add any other comments or suggestions about this content:





Recommended Help Content

How To Disable CloudFlare - CloudFlare Guide

How do I disable CloudFlare for my domain?

Using CloudFlare

How to manage CloudFlare on your Bluehost account.

Change a MySQL Users Password

This article will explain how to change or reset the password for a MySQL user.

Related Help Content

Specifying default Name Servers for a reseller account

How to specify the default Name Servers on a reseller account

VPS and Dedicated Hosting: Enabling FTP on New Servers

This article will explain how-to enable FTP on a newly provisioned VPS or Dedicated cPanel server. Since FTP is an unsecured connection point to the server, cPanel has it disabled by default in version 11.86 or prior.

DNS Management - How To Add Edit Or Delete DNS Entries

How to Modify Your DNS Records

VPS and Dedicated Hosting: Restore or Transfer cPanel

If you need to transfer or restore a cPanel account for your VPS or Dedicated server, there is a tool within the WHM panel to perform these tasks. This article is about transferring or restoring from another server or restoring after a re-image.

Change Length of Hosting Plan

How do I change my contract length?

How To Change Your Primary Domain

How can I change the primary domain name on my account?

Email Accounts - Change the Mailbox Size Quota

Where do I Change my Mailbox (Size) Quota? How do I Increase or Decrease Mailbox (Storage) Quota?

Modifying the Nameservers through other registrars

How do I Change My DNS?