Cloudflare

[HuskerGarrett]

This is probably a very stupid question, but I’ve been searching and reading and can’t really figure it out. What exactly is cloudflare? Can someone explain it to me? Is it worth it?

 

[Suzanne O]

@digitalpoint knows about it. Have tagged him so he will help you

 

[HuskerGarrett]

@digitalpoint knows about it. Have tagged him so he will help you

Thank you!

 

[duderuud]

Cloudflare is a CDN

 

[HuskerGarrett]

Cloudflare is a CDN

Thank you! That page is really helpful. Probably another stupid question - it doesn’t replace my host, so how is it installed? Through the host?

 

[duderuud]

You change your DNS. Normally your DNS points to your webserver directly but when you use a CDN you point your DNS to the CDN.

That way all the traffic to your websites goes to the CDN and handles all the traffic.

 

[HuskerGarrett]

You change your DNS. Normally your DNS points to your webserver directly but when you use a CDN you point your DNS to the CDN.

That way all the traffic to your websites goes to the CDN and handles all the traffic.

Got it! Thank you

 

[TPerry]

I use them for my DNS services for my domains, and as a CDN and DDOS protection service.
They also have the ability to set up rules to block certain known bad actors from even hitting your site, block tor access (or use challenges to prevent minimize bots coming in via TOR nodes).
I use DigitalPoints CF add-on... and it's very helpful for tuning it for your site.

[DigitalPoint] App for Cloudflare®

Features Everything is available from within XenForo (you do not need to go to Cloudflare for things) via the Cloudflare API. This allows you give admins permission to do certain things (for example block IP addresses within Cloudflare without...

xenforo.com

It also gives you some performance info in the main ACP page

 

[HuskerGarrett]

I use them for my DNS services for my domains, and as a CDN and DDOS protection service.
They also have the ability to set up rules to block certain known bad actors from even hitting your site, block tor access (or use challenges to prevent minimize bots coming in via TOR nodes).
I use DigitalPoints CF add-on... and it's very helpful for tuning it for your site.

[DigitalPoint] App for Cloudflare®

Features Everything is available from within XenForo (you do not need to go to Cloudflare for things) via the Cloudflare API. This allows you give admins permission to do certain things (for example block IP addresses within Cloudflare without...

xenforo.com

It also gives you some performance info in the main ACP page
View attachment 288180

Thank you! I’ll probably try to get this all set up tomorrow. Is the $20/month option typically fine for a forum with this traffic

 

[TPerry]

Try the free first.... if you find you need more abilities... then go paid. There are numerous decent size sites running on the free tier.

 

[HuskerGarrett]

Try the free first.... if you find you need more abilities... then go paid. There are numerous decent size sites running on the free tier.

Awesome. Thanks for all of your help

 

[digitalpoint]

Already been answered, but Cloudflare can do a lot of great things for your site for free. Unless you have a specific reason to go to a paid plan, the free tier is all you need.

Generally Cloudflare can make your site faster and more secure than it would be without.

 

[rc211e]

Very useful thread. Thank You

 

[Suzanne O]

Just started using this on some good advice coming from some people i know.
The free tier is the best one.

 

[dvsDave]

Also, Cloudflare Turnstile is the best replacement for a CAPTCHA out there right now. You don't need your site running on Cloudflare to use either. (you did till about 2 weeks ago) https://www.cloudflare.com/products/turnstile/ and the option to use Cloudflare turnstile is in your admin control panel. Setup-> Options-> Basic Options.

 

[Jja]

I do really hate to frequently visit sites which do use Turnstile. It is annoying to have it as user.

 

[digitalpoint]

I do really hate to frequently visit sites which do use Turnstile. It is annoying to have it as user.

What is annoying about it? Because normally you don't have to do anything (not even click a checkbox). You can see it in-use here:

Contact us

xenforo.com

There's even a mode where it's completely hidden (you don't even see the box).

 

[Jja]

What is annoying about it? Because normally you don't have to do anything (not even click a checkbox).

Some of the sites implements it before rendering page itself to fight bots, often when i have to fast check info from my bookmarked link - it is annoying to have to wait for turnstile while that page could have already loaded, often my mobile device even asks to fill checkbox.
You might call me grumpy but it is for me.

 

[digitalpoint]

Some of the sites implements it before rendering page itself to fight bots, often when i have to fast check info from my bookmarked link - it is annoying to have to wait for turnstile while that page could have already loaded, often my mobile device even asks to fill checkbox.
You might call me grumpy but it is for me.

That's not (exactly) Turnstile. That's the site forcibly injecting a managed challenge page to their normal content, and the challenge page happens to use Turnstile. So that's on the site owner, not Turnstile that's causing the delay.

Personally, I think it's rather pointless (and like you... somewhat annoying) when they do it, but it's a firewall thing (not a Turnstile thing). It's the site owner doing it via firewall setting, not Turnstile.



Turnstile is the link I gave before (the contact form here). Managed challenges just happen to use Turnstile to verify if someone is a human, but it's not Turnstile itself that is injecting the page before the real page you want to see.

 

[Jja]

Thank You for pointing this out, i never had need to configure "managed challange" myself, so i didnt knew exactly how it was done.