Tag: DNS

What is a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)?

When working with domains and DNS management understanding what a FQDN is can be very helpful. This article will help explain the concept of a FQDN and a domains different components.

When setting up your new website with Liquid Web it’s often beneficial to use our DNS servers. If you’ve purchased your domain through a 3rd party registrar then we are not able to assist with DNS issues. By using our DNS servers this will allow our Support Team to provide DNS assistance for the domain.

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is a way to attach an encrypted digital signature to emails sent by your domain/server. Similar to adding an SPF record to your server, DKIM help to prevent email spoofing.

From time to time, you’ll have to make changes to your DNS records. For example, if you change IP addresses, your DNS A records will change. You’ll also change DNS if you want to add SPF records to help email authentication. For these changes to work properly, it’s vital to know where DNS is hosted.

One of the many challenges that we may face while attempting to make modifications to a zone file, is knowing what the different records are used for.  This article highlight several of the commonly used records in an attempt to help demystify them.

Pre-Flight Check

• This article assumes that you have already set up CloudFlare and added your domain.
• We’ll be adding DNS records in Liquid Web’s Manage dashboard. If your site isn’t using Liquid Web’s nameservers, you’ll need to make changes at your registrar or DNS provider.
• We’ll be using cPanel to set up an .htaccess redirect. If you don’t have access to cPanel, you will need to edit your .htaccess file directly; if you’re using a web server other than Apache (such as Nginx or IIS), you’ll need to set up the redirect manually. You can find tips for doing so in the bonus content section of this article.

Step #1: Get Your CloudFlare DNS Settings

• Once your site has been added to CloudFlare via Manage, select Domains from the left menu, click on the CloudFlare tab and click the [+] button next to your domain name to expand the CloudFlare dashboard.
• Now click on the DNS Settings link near the bottom-right corner to view your settings.
• The popup window will show you the specific changes you’ll need to make for your site:Specifically, you’ll need to:
  • Add an .htaccess redirect to ensure all traffic to your site uses the “www” subdomain.
  • Add a CNAME record for the subdomain “cf-landing.yourdomainname.com”.
  • Change your CNAME record for the “www” subdomain to point to “www.yourdomain.com.cdn.cloudflare.net”.

Step #2: Redirect Traffic to Your ‘www’ Subdomain

If you have access to cPanel, setting up the redirect is a simple process using the method detailed below. If you don’t have access to cPanel, though, you’ll need to set up the redirect manually. You can find tips for doing so in the bonus content section of this article.

This tutorial assumes you’ve already logged in to cPanel, and are starting on the home screen.

Pre-Flight Check

Pre-Flight Check

• These instructions are intended for domain names using Liquid Web’s nameservers.
• If the main domain uses other nameservers, such as at a registrar, you will need to log in there and add an “A” record for the hostname in the main domain’s DNS zone file. The record should point to the server’s primary IP address.

As you might expect, most support requests on managed cPanel servers fall into a few basic categories. What you might be surprised to discover is that many common problems can be resolved by following a few simple steps.