DNS and Redirects

[McServer (Ron McElfresh)]

I have a client who moved a WP site to WebFlow and while the site looks good and performs well, there were issues with the WebFlow DNS setup, particularly when invoking SSL.

Why can’t the www.domain.com sub-domain CNAME simply be pointed to WebFlow’s proxy server and leave domain.com for other operations? Why is it necessary to point domain.com to two different IP addresses? That method limits use of domain.com for additional sub-domains, and makes email setup troublesome at best (and that crazy Cloudflare CNAME flattening mess).

Can a domain name-- www.domain.com-- simply point to WebFlow’s proxy server, and then have domain.com set up on a different server and merely redirect requests back to www.domain.com?

That seems to be a more elegant, useful, and flexible solution.

What am I missing?

[Waldo (Waldo Broodrÿk)]

Hi @McServer great questions!

With our current SSL configuration your www version of your custom domain needs to be set as the default domain. The two A records on the root domain create a re-direct for root domain traffic to your www version of the domain on SSL hosting.

This setup ensures that both https://yourdomain.com and http://yourdomain.com re-direct to https://www.yourdomain.com. You may be able to configure this externally with a different route but that would not be recommended as it could cause adverse behavior.

A records on your root domain should not conflict with email setup as those are typically configured with MX records. Serving up your root domain on SSL hosting would require utilizing a DNS provider that supports CNAME flattening. If you need to setup CNAME flattening (serving up the root domain over SSL) I recommend checking out any of the following DNS providers:
http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com
https://dnsimple.com

Cloudflare - The Web Performance & Security Company | Cloudflare

[McServer (Ron McElfresh)]

Thanks, Waldo. Can I move the A Record of domain.com to a different IP and redirect traffic to the CNAME record which points to WebFlow’s proxy server? That would give us easy control over subdomains. Checking the forums I see mostly trouble with CNAME flattening, Cloudflare, etc.

[Waldo (Waldo Broodrÿk)]

Hi @McServer that would not be the recommended configuration for your root domain re-direct.

Our CNAME record for subdomains create dynamic IP records which change regularly so you wouldn’t be able to point to an A record which then points to proxy-ssl.webflow.com.

Any subdomains pointing to Webflow simply need a CNAME record configured for that respective subdomain, for example:

staging ➞ proxy-ssl.webflow.com
or
www ➞ proxy-ssl.webflow.com
or
subdomain ➞ proxy-ssl.webflow.com

I feel like I may be missing something in your request, could you tell me what you’re trying to configure exactly please?

[McServer (Ron McElfresh)]

Subdomains. The WebFlow setup inhibits subdomains from the root domain (without jumping through all kinds of hoops via CNAME flattening, changing DNS Host providers, etc.). From what I can see it’s difficult to create test.domain.com, backup.domain.com, or any other kind of subdomain without some substantial-- and based upon issues I read in the WebFlow forums-- configuration issues.

The outline you gave above does now allow a subdomain to be pointed to a different, non-WebFlow IP address (unless there is a configuration option I cannot find).

Under the guidelines you listed how would I create subdomains and point them to appropriate and different IP addresses for, say, backup.domain.com, test.domain.com, even mail.domain.com (or imap.domain.com, smtp.domain.com).

Show me if I’m wrong, but I should be able to create a CNAME for the subdomain www.domain.com and point it to WebFlow’s proxy server, right? Then, the A Record for domain.com can be pointed to any IP address under my control (which, in this case, would redirect to www.domain.com via .htaccess; amazingly easy). I’m missing something as to why the domain.com A record MUST be pointed to WebFlow’s IP addresses.

[McServer (Ron McElfresh)]

So, all I really need is a subdomain-- www.domain.com-- pointed to WebFlow’s proxy server, and I can keep domain.com A Records on another server, but have them redirect back to www.domain.com? That would be a good thing.

I ask because I have a client who moved to WebFlow, a WF developer built a nice looking website, but misconfigured the DNS settings in the Projects panel which took a few days to sort out. Worse, the developer has decided not to help the website owner, won’t allow access to the Project settings, and considers the website to be done even though it has errors. So, we’re trying to sort it out and make it work the way it should.