All help articlesSet up a DNS proxy
Note
This is the generic guide to configuring a DNS proxy. If you’re using Cloudflare specifically, check out this help document.To get started, you’ll need to find your selected proxy’s nameservers. You should be able to find these by consulting your selected proxy’s setup documentation.
Once you have your proxy’s nameservers, head on over to your domain registrar. Find the portion of your domain registrar’s dashboard where you can set the nameservers your selected domain uses. Most domain registrars give options to use their own default nameservers or custom nameservers. If this is the case for you, you’ll want to use customer nameservers, entering the nameservers you were given by your DNS proxy. Note: changing a domain’s nameservers can take 24-48 hours to fully propagate.
Now that your domain is using your DNS proxy’s nameservers, you can manage your DNS settings in your proxy’s dashboard.
Warning
If you have set up MX records prior to changing nameservers, email service will be interrupted during the nameserver propagation period. You will also need to make sure to copy the MX records you have in place over to the new proxy’s DNS settings.To set your DNS to point to Flywheel, we recommend the following settings for domains where both the root domain (example.com) and the www version of that domain are going to point at the same site on Flywheel.
| Domain | DNS Record Type | Value |
| example.com | A record | Your Flywheel site IP address |
| www.example.com | CNAME record | example.com |
Note
Some registrars may use placeholder symbols to represent parts of DNS. Here is a quick cheat-sheet of these symbols and what they mean in some DNS editors:| @ | This represents the root version of your domain. In our example above, @ would be a placeholder for example.com without any subdomain or www before it.
|
| * | This is a wildcard record. It means that it doesn’t matter what subdomain you type into your browser(www.example.com, shop.example.com, dolphins.example.com). All are going to be directed by this * value.
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Additionally, some registrars do not require you to type in the entire domain for every field. For most, simply typing in www in the name field will mean you are creating a subdomain that is actually www.example.com.
You can alternatively create the www.example.com domain as an A record pointed at your Flywheel site IP address, if you’d prefer.
Note
Due to the nature of DNS proxies, you won’t be able to use a DNS checker to confirm that your domain is properly pointed to the Flywheel IP.If you have questions about setting up your DNS proxy, Flywheel support is more than happy to help. Our experts will do their best walk you through it. Just grab some screenshots of your current setup and shoot us a message.
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