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Proxy DNS records

The first - and often easiest - step of DDoS protection is making sure your DNS records are proxied through Cloudflare.

How it works

Without Cloudflare

Without Cloudflare, DNS lookups for your application's URL return the IP address of your origin server ↗.

URLReturned IP address
example.com192.0.2.1

When using Cloudflare with unproxied DNS records, DNS lookups for unproxied domains or subdomains also return your origin's IP address.

Another way of thinking about this concept is that visitors directly connect with your origin server.

        flowchart LR
        accTitle: Connections without Cloudflare
        A[Visitor] <-- Connection --> B[Origin server]

With Cloudflare

With Cloudflare — meaning your domain or subdomain is using