DreamHost CloudFlare
DreamHost has is now offering cloudflare service from their control panel. Many of you might not be aware of the cloudflare service. Let me first explain what cloudflare is and what benefits it offers.
CloudFlare
Cloudflare is a service which improves your website performance by loading your web site faster and it also makes your web site more secure. According to cloudflare, it loads your web site twice as fast and uses 60% less bandwidth.
To use Cloudflare service, you don’t have to integrate any code. You just sign up with the cloudflare service and need to change DNS entries and you can start using CloudFlare.
Once Cloudflare service is activated for your web site, all requests come to cloudflare first. Cloudflare differentiate real visitors, crawlers and attackers and only passes requests from real visitors and crawlers. This is how cloudflare makes your web site more secure.
Cloudflare has its own Content Delivery Network (CDN). As of writing this article, cloudflare has 14 nodes around the world. Cloudflare delivers content from the nearest CDN. So your web site loading speed improves. Even when your web site is down, Cloudflare can deliver a cached copy from the CDN. This is another great benefit of using CloudFlare.
Using Cloudflare Service
You can use Cloudflare service for free. Just go to www.cloudflare.com and sign up there. Once you get the account, you need to add a web site and change the DNS entries for your domain.
Cloudflare also offers a paid service (Pro Package) for $20/month charges. In paid service, you get advance security protection and real time statics of your visitors.
If you are DreamHost customer then you can get the paid service (Plus Package) at $9.95 per month. DreamHost has made a deal with Cloudflare and that’s why they are offering cheaper cloudflare service then original price.
There are few differences between “Pro Package” offered by CloudFlare and “Plus Package” offered by DreamHost. Pro offers Web Application Firewall (WAF) while Plus does not offer WAF feature. Pro gives 15 minutes delay analytics data while plus gives 1 hour delay analytics data. You can set 20 page rules in pro package while you can set 10 page rules in plus package.
Activate CloudFlare on DreamHost
Activating CloudFlare on DreamHost hosted domain is quite simple. Just follow these easy steps and cloudflare will be ready for your domain.
1) Login to your control panel and go to Manage Domains section.
2) Click on the Edit for the domain for which you want to enable cloudflare service.
3) Make sure you have Add WWW option is selected in Domain Name section. As of writing this article, this is compulsory for using CloudFlare service.
4) Check the CloudFlare services checkbox. Enter the cloudflare account details. If you already have a cloudflare account then you can select Existing Account and enter your email and password there. If you don’t have an account then, select the New Account option and enter your email id, username and password.
5) Select your cloudflare subscription plan.
6) Click on change setting and done.
Now you have activated cloudflare service for your domain name. Enjoy the benefits of cloudflare.
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