OK, so for some reason you need to make a change to the DNS settings for your domain.  This could be due to moving a website, changing email providers, or even proving to Google that you are in control of your domain for verification purposes…. For m

OK, so for some reason you need to make a change to the DNS settings for your domain. &#xA0;This could be due to moving a website, changing email providers, or even proving to Google that you are in control of your domain for verification purposes&#x2026;. &#xA0;&#xA0;<h3 id="but-where-is-your-dns">But where is your DNS?</h3>For most folks, DNS management resides at the place they originally registered their domain. &#xA0;GoDaddy is staggeringly popular, but there are a ton of other places.If you can&#x2019;t remember where your DNS lives, you can do a quick check here by entering your domain name and checking the results:<ul><li><a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://mxtoolbox.com/dnscheck.aspx">https://mxtoolbox.com/dnscheck.aspx</a></li></ul>As you can see in my results below, my DNS is controlled by the servers named &#x201C;domaincontrol.com&#x201D; which just happens to be the name that GoDaddy uses for their name servers. &#xA0;You can also see the name GoDaddy.com. LLC resolved in the IP Address column as another clue.<img data-fr-image-pasted="true" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5fa403567fab0d7e2c495003/1625081017765-GTEXPPV4T4792C5SPWJB/dnscheck.png?format=2500w" style="width: 700px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded">More resources:Find your DNS Host - <a data-fr-linked="true" href="https://docs.rackspace.com/support/how-to/find-dns-host/">https://docs.rackspace.com/support/how-to/find-dns-host/</a>

Where is my DNS hosted?

You can view all of the categories below for your website using our DNS Detangler tool. Domain Registrar - the place you buy (rent, actually) your domain. DNS Host - the place where your DNS records live. Website Host - where your website lives. Mail

You can view all of the categories below for your website using our <a href="https://tools.smalltechstack.com/dnscheck/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DNS Detangler tool</a> Domain Registrar - the place you buy (rent, actually) your domain.&#xA0;<ul><li>Cost: Typically on the order of $10 - $20 per year</li></ul> DNS&#xA0;Host - the place where your DNS records live.&#xA0;<ul><li>Typically free if you know what you are doing</li><li>Usually the same as your Domain Registrar unless you choose to decouple them</li><li>Your DNS Host is determined by the Nameserver entries that are controlled at your Domain Registrar</li><li>Hard to beat Cloudflare here since they offer a free DNS tier that includes&#xA0;</li></ul> Website Host - where your website lives.&#xA0;<ul><li>Typically $5/mo for VPS Wordpress hosting up to $20/mo for something like Squarespace</li><li>Your Website Host(s) are controlled via ARecord and/or CNAME records at your DNS Host</li></ul> Mail Host - where your email gets delivered.&#xA0;<ul><li>Typically ~$5+ per mailbox per month somewhere like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 but you can it for $0 if you host your own mail server on your website VPS.</li><li>Your Email Host is controlled via MX records at your DNS Host</li></ul>

The Four Major Pieces of Website Hosting

⁠Export all your current records from your current DNS hostGoDaddy exports a true zone file which can be directly imported into CloudflarePorkbun can export a CSV list of recordsIf needed, you can take a screenshot or copy-paste your existing records

<ol><li>&#x2060;Export all your current records from your current DNS host<ol><li><a href="https://sso.godaddy.com/?realm=idp&amp;app=www&amp;path=%2Fhelp%2Fexport-my-domains-zone-file-records-4166">GoDaddy</a> exports a true <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_file" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">zone file</a> which can be directly imported into Cloudflare</li><li><a href="https://kb.porkbun.com/article/157-how-to-export-a-list-of-domains-as-a-csv" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Porkbun</a> can export a CSV list of records</li><li>If needed, you can take a screenshot or copy-paste your existing records into a text file for later reference </li></ol></li><li>&#x2060;Create your &#x201C;site&#x201D; in Cloudflare by choosing the &quot;Free&quot; tier<ol><li><a href="https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/setup/manage-domains/add-site/" id="isPasted">https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/setup/manage-domains/add-site/</a> <img src="https://attachments.gorgias.help/j6dmg/hc/7aeb/07622194-6046-4ddc-ba10-b839f415c1b4-f4dfe489-1a18-4c66-9fe4-95bd85af1640.png" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-bordered"> </li></ol></li><li>&#x2060;Cloudflare will now attempt to find and add your existing records and will get most but not all of them. This is because subdomains on ARecords and CNAMES can&#x2019;t be publicly enumerated.<ol><li>Note this section from the Cloudflare documentation: <img src="https://attachments.gorgias.help/j6dmg/hc/7aeb/65fde2c9-f4d9-46d0-b4b0-dd4a028d9fa7-2b73802a-365f-4b03-8c2f-24d6f629c5df.png" style="width: 600px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-bordered"> </li></ol></li><li>&#x2060;At this point, I usually delete all of the Cloudflare auto-added records and then simply import my GoDaddy zone file, taking care to then remove any NS records afterward since they will be wrong. &#xA0;Make sure you are careful to ensure that every record that existed in your previous DNS host now exists in your Cloudflare site. &#xA0;Failure to do this means that something will likely break. </li><li>&#x2060;Once your Cloudflare site contains all your required DNS records, you can go back to your registrar and change your nameservers to the one Cloudflare requires... &#xA0;This marks the official &quot;handoff&quot; of DNS record control from your original DNS host over to Cloudflare. </li><li>Test all your sites and email systems...&#xA0; &#xA0;then wait a few hours and test them again.</li></ol><div dir="ltr">&#xA0;</div>

Switching your DNS Hosting from your Registrar to Cloudflare

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DNS and Web Hosting

Where is my DNS hosted?

The Four Major Pieces of Website Hosting

Switching your DNS Hosting from your Registrar to Cloudflare