CloudFlare Partnership

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Corey

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We have partnered up with CloudFlare to offer their free CDN service to all of our shared hosting users. You will now find a CloudFlare icon in your cPanel(Under Software \ Services). that will let you setup and enable CloudFlare on your site with just a few simple mouse clicks.

If you're interested in CloudFlare I would suggest checking out the intro video right on their main site here: http://www.cloudflare.com/

Below is the CloudFlare FAQ:


What is CloudFlare?
CloudFlare is a performance and security service that we provide to our customers. On average, a website on CloudFlare loads 40% faster, uses 60% less bandwidth, has 65% fewer requests and is way more secure.

What is the association between x10Hosting and CloudFlare?
CloudFlare is a third-party vendor that is offering CloudFlare to x10Hosting customers through a partnership. This partnership is in beta.

We are continually striving to make the service the most effective, so let us know what you think. You can contact either x10Hosting or the CloudFlare Team at support@cloudflare.com.

How does CloudFlare’s technology work?
CloudFlare works as a reverse proxy. What this means is that once your website is part of the CloudFlare community, your web traffic is routed through CloudFlare’s global network.

CloudFlare’s network stores copy of your static files closer to your visitors, which means they are delivered more quickly than before. We cache resources such as CSS, Javascript and images. You do not have to make any changes on your end, CloudFlare’s technology automatically decides which resources to cache based on file extension names. We do not cache dynamic content. CloudFlare also does compression for every request.

CloudFlare’s network also blocks threats and limits abusive bots before they hit your server, which means less wasted bandwidth and server resources for you.

Where are CloudFlare’s data centers located?
CloudFlare’s network currently has eight locations. San Jose (US), Los Angeles (US), Chicago (US), Ashburn (US), New Jersey (US). Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Tokyo. At each of these nodes, CloudFlare does caching and bot filtering. We will be adding additional data centers in Paris, Frankfurt, London, Dallas, Miami, and Singapore in May 2011.

What types of websites can use CloudFlare?
Almost all websites can use CloudFlare. CloudFlare works for both static and dynamic websites.

CloudFlare is not suitable for websites that stream video or audio directly from their origin server. If you use YouTube or Vimeo for the videos embedded on your website, then that is compatible with CloudFlare.

My website has SSL. What do I do?
If you have SSL, your website can use CloudFlare, however there is an extra step. If your SSL is on its own sub-domain (i.e. SSL), then ensure that this sub-domain is marked with a gray cloud. If your SSL is on your root domain or www, then you have to upgrade to the paid, Pro service and follow the directions outlined here.

Will CloudFlare accelerate and protect my root domain?
CloudFlare can only accelerate and protect CNAMES. Since your root domain is an A record, we recommend that you forward your traffic to ‘www’ through your .htaccess file. If you do not forward the traffic, then any traffic to www.mydomain.com will be accelerated and protected by CloudFlare (and shown in the statistics) and any traffic to mydomain.com will not be served by CloudFlare.

Are there sub-domains I shouldn't enable with CloudFlare?
Sub-domains on CloudFlare are marked with an orange cloud. Sub-domains not on CloudFlare are marked with a gray cloud.

The CloudFlare network can only proxy web traffic over port 80 and 443. The following sub-domains should be marked with a gray cloud to prevent performance issues:

cpanel
direct
ftp
ghs.google.com
mail and webmail
mysql
nameservers (NS1, NS2)
secure* (unless you enable CloudFlare SSL)

View the full list of sub-domains here:

http://www.cloudflare.com/wiki/What_subdomains_are_appropriate_for_orange_/_gray_clouds

Can I enable CloudFlare on a wildcard (*) sub-domain?
No, for security reasons, CloudFlare does not proxy traffic to a wildcard sub-domain. You have to explicitly list the sub-domain as a CNAME in your DNS records to be able to activate CloudFlare.

Can I enable CloudFlare on my root domain (i.e. mywebsite.com) that is an A record?
If you activate CloudFlare through x10Hosting, CloudFlare can only accelerate and protect CNAMEs, not A records, which often includes the root domain. If you have traffic that goes to your root domain and you want to accelerate and protect the traffic using CloudFlare, you can add a redirect to ‘www’ in your .htaccess file. You should work with x10Hosting, but as a general outline, a redirect looks as follow:

RewriteEngine On
# Rewrite added for CloudflareInstall - mysite.com
# Wednesday 25th of August 2010 04:59:42 AM
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^mysite.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^80$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

I activated CloudFlare from my x10Hosting account. Do I also get an account on CloudFlare.com? What is the difference?

Once you activate CloudFlare on x10Hosting you also get an account at www.cloudflare.com. The basic statistics and settings are shown in your x10Hosting control panel. To see more statistics, your Threat Control panel and all the CloudFlare settings, you have to log in to your www.cloudflare.com account.

(Hint: To access your account the first time, enter the email address associated with your x10Hosting account and use the “I forgot my password” feature).



I tried CloudFlare and have an issue. What should I do?
When you enable CloudFlare, there should be no noticeable difference to your website. If your site is loading slowing after enabling CloudFlare, there is most likely a problem. First, disable CloudFlare by clicking the orange cloud so it becomes gray. Second, report the issue to x10Hosting. The x10Hosting team will work with CloudFlare to resolve the issue.
 

vv.bbcc19

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Dear Sir,
Thanks for the innovative move.
But some day, if cloudflare goes away from X10 partnership, will there be a kind of loss to the website makers who are on X10..
Putting it on the otherway round..if I opt to cloudflare now and after 2 months I don't want that and I withdraw, will I be in a kind of deadlock?
Please suggest.
 

Corey

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You can shut cloudflare off at anytime right from your cPanel, turning it on and off in no way does anything to your files. It allows their CDN to kick in to better serve your site and also keep a static copy of it online in case of a server not responding on our side.
 

Jennacide

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It allows their CDN to kick in to better serve your site and also keep a static copy of it online in case of a server not responding on our side.

That's epic and also the reason why I'm running off now to go turn it on ;) Thanks Corey, awesome move!
 

techairlines

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This is an excellent move. I've been using CloudFlare on all my websites as one of the early beta testers since early July 2010 and it's been significantly speeding up my site as well as blocking out a large number of threats. Highly recommend the service. :)

Congrats on the new partnership!
 

vv.bbcc19

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You can shut cloudflare off at anytime right from your cPanel, turning it on and off in no way does anything to your files. It allows their CDN to kick in to better serve your site and also keep a static copy of it online in case of a server not responding on our side.
Ahah..Thanks sir.
I have few more questions regarding the same but I think I should mail to the support email id given in your post.I will do the same.
I got the doubt clarified and nice of you.I would also recommend this service to my friends on the forum but after I speak to the support through the email id.
Regards
 

Smith6612

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Sounds like a great partnership to have Corey. :)
 

netsilver93

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I've been using CloudFare for some time now and have found the service great and useful. Load speed is becoming more critical and one of the important variables for Search Engine indexation. Congrats for the partnership!
 

edfungus

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Well I tried this and it was amazing for a little bit until my site could not load completely. The bottom half would just refuse to load and the width of the webpage was loading really wide (my site is a smartphone site that fits to the phone's size).
Now I have disabled CloudFlare but I still get issues and a major one is that I cannot connect to my database again.

Please help?
Edmund
 

m_a_rcelinho81

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I don't know how to configure it. I filled out everything and a grey cloud appear, but when I click it it doesn't turn yellow. How can I configure it? I'm using a free subdomain .x10.mx
Thanks.
 

FrozenTime

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Sorry for bumping an old topic, but I guess there's a reason it wasn't locked. Anyways, I thought I'd share something I noticed with CloudFlare that might help solve some problems (if this has already been mentioned, forgive me). It really does make the pages load faster, BUT if you're still designing your website (especially if it requires editing the CSS with a lot of guess and check), then I'd recommend disabling it until you're done. What Cloudflare does is save the site's CSS somewhere. Clearing Cache and all other forms of temporary browser info does not remove the CSS you saved (I've tried all types of special Cache removal and other apps) and the only way for you to see your changes is either to rename the CSS and relink in the HTML page, or wait a few hours for Cloudflare to somehow update it. It was extremely annoying to design my site that way until I finally tried disabling Cloudflare, which completely fixed the problem. I do plan on re-enablling it, but probably not until I make a solid CSS design. Hope this helps :)
 

CWeb Creative

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Sorry for bumping an old topic, but I guess there's a reason it wasn't locked. Anyways, I thought I'd share something I noticed with CloudFlare that might help solve some problems (if this has already been mentioned, forgive me). It really does make the pages load faster, BUT if you're still designing your website (especially if it requires editing the CSS with a lot of guess and check), then I'd recommend disabling it until you're done. What Cloudflare does is save the site's CSS somewhere. Clearing Cache and all other forms of temporary browser info does not remove the CSS you saved (I've tried all types of special Cache removal and other apps) and the only way for you to see your changes is either to rename the CSS and relink in the HTML page, or wait a few hours for Cloudflare to somehow update it. It was extremely annoying to design my site that way until I finally tried disabling Cloudflare, which completely fixed the problem. I do plan on re-enablling it, but probably not until I make a solid CSS design. Hope this helps :)
If you create a subdomain (eg direct) that doesn't use cloudflare while your working on your site it prevents cloudflare from caching your page and your changes will be reflected instantly. Also, not sure about the x10 version of cloudflare but the normal version has a development mode that turns it off for a set amount of time the turns it back on automatically again so you don't forget.
 
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Toffmonster

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Also, not sure about the x10 version of cloudflare but the normal version has a development mode that turns it off for a set amount of time the turns it back on automatically again so you don't forget.
It does. I wanted to show that guy where to find that Development Mode switch with a snapshot, but couldn't access my cPanel since the recent IP blockage x10 implemented.

By the way, ESET started blocking CloudFlare IPs for some reason. Not sure who to report this to.
 

Smith6612

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