Published 28 June 2024 in Your Artfundi Website
Do you want your own domain name for your Artfundi website? We’ve got your back!
With Artfundi, you have the choice to use your own domain name, such as 'examplegallery.com', to showcase to your users instead of your automated URL 'example-gallery.artfundi.tech'.
This allows you to have a personalized and unique web address that aligns with your brand or business.
In this article, we'll guide you on how to link your custom domain name to your website and mailbox.
1: First your domain name will need to be registered, if you don’t have one as yet.
You have two registration options for your domain name:
You can directly register the domain name with any Registrar of your choice.
or
Alternatively, we can take care of the domain name registration for you. In such cases, we will handle the process on your behalf and send you an invoice. Please note that there will be an initial domain registration fee, as well as annual renewal fees which vary depending on the domain extension (such as .com, .co, .org, etc.). It's important to mention that if we handle the registration, we use Cloudflare, however, please be aware that Cloudflare does not currently support the .co.za domain extension.
If you opt for this choice, please contact us, and we will verify the availability of your desired domain name and extension. Additionally, we will provide you with the relevant cost information and request your registration details.
2: Add your domain name to your Artfundi platform.
Once you have your domain name, log in to your Artfundi platform, and under ‘Website’, click on ‘DNS Settings’. Enter your domain name into the blank field, and click on the ‘Create’ button.
3: Linking your custom domain name to your Artfundi website.
The next step depends on whether we registered your domain on your behalf, if you registered or manage the DNS of your domain name on a Cloudflare account, or if you registered your domain name with another registrar.
If we handled the domain registration on your behalf, we will proceed accordingly and nothing is required from you in this step.
orIf you registered your domain name directly with Cloudflare or have the domain set up on a Cloudflare account, the following actions must be performed by you (or the person managing your Cloudflare account) to ensure your domain is properly connected to your Artfundi website:
DNS:
To update your DNS settings in your Cloudflare account, you need to recreate any existing DNS records (such as live DNS or mail records) that you want to keep active. Additionally, ensure that the www and @ A records are updated to the Artfundi IP address which we will provide upon request. For detailed instructions, please refer to this Cloudflare help article.
Redirect Rule:
To ensure that browsing to your domain with "www" redirects to the naked domain (e.g., example.com), a dynamic redirect rule needs to be set up. For detailed instructions on how to manage DNS records and set up redirects, please refer to this Cloudflare help article.
SSL:
The last important step is to ensure that the SSL/TLS encryption mode is set to 'Full' and that the SSL/TLS Recommender is turned OFF. For more details, please refer to this Cloudflare help article.
or
If you registered your domain name directly with a Registrar, please provide the domain name to us. We will generate Name Servers for the domain and share them with you. It will then be your responsibility to contact your domain Registrar and give them the Name Servers provided by us. Instruct them to update the domain's Name Servers from the default ones to those of Cloudflare. This will ensure that your domain is properly connected to Cloudflare.
4: Optional; If you have/require a mailbox for your domain, read further.
Mailboxes are hosted by your chosen hosting provider. If you don’t have a hosting provider with mailboxes set up, you will need to source one.
Since your domain’s DNS will be managed by Cloudflare, we need to point the Mail Exchanger (MX) records from Cloudflare to your mail hosting provider’s server to keep your mailboxes operational.
Please contact your hosting provider to get the MX record details for your mailboxes. They will provide the necessary information, such as the hostname and priority. Once you have this information, share it with us. We will then update your DNS settings with Cloudflare to ensure your email setup works seamlessly.
That’s it! Once all DNS records have been updated accordingly, we need to allow some time for the changes to propagate. The propagation time can vary, but it can take anything between 2 and 48 hours.