In modern world, you need to have a website whether you are a student, professional, non-IT bussiness or any other company. Website is one of the most impactful way to share your word to the world. It gives a plus point to work professionally and makes you more authentic.
In this article, we will discuss how to get a free domain name from Freenom and set it up with Cloudflare as the nameserver. We will also show you how to run Cloudron or Yunohost on a Linux server to easily host your website on the cloud. This guide is aimed at beginners and experienced people who are curious to the world of web hosting and domains.
Prerequisites:
To follow this guide, you will need to have access to a Linux server running Ubuntu or Debian based system. You will also need to have a basic understanding of DNS and web hosting concepts. You can learn more about this topic here.
How to get a FREE Domain from Freenom?
Freenom is a website that offers free and paid domain names to us. Infect it is the only website which provides free domain.
To get a free domain from Freenom, follow these steps:
- Go to the Freenom website and sign up for a new account.
- Search for a domain name that is available and register it.
- Verify your email address, location (no need to keep it real) and complete the registration process.
Configure Cloudflare Nameserver for the Domain on Freenom settings:
Once you have registered your domain name, you will need to configure Cloudflare as the nameserver for your domain. To do this, follow these steps:
Make sure you have created and logged in to your Cloudflare account and added the domain. After that, Cloudflare will provide two name server which will be used in the following steps.
- Log in to your Freenom account and select the domain you want to configure.
- Click on the "Manage Domain" button and select "Nameservers".
- Change the nameservers to those which you got from cloudflare i.e, "ns1.cloudflare.com" and "ns2.cloudflare.com".
- Save the changes and wait for the nameservers to propagate, it may take as long as 24 hours sometimes.
Add DNS A (IPv4) and AAAA (IPv6) Records on Cloudflare:
Once you have configured Cloudflare as the nameserver for your domain, you will need to add DNS A and AAAA records to point to your server's IP address manually. To do this follow these steps:
- Log in to your Cloudflare account and click the domain to configure.
- Go to the "DNS" tab (left menu) and add a new A record with your server's IP address.
- Add a new AAAA record with your server's IPv6 address (if available).
- Save the changes.
Setup HTTPS on your website
One of the most important and final step on setuping your own website is to add HTTPS (SSL/TLS encryption) to your website which keeps your users safe from MITM attacks. To do this follow the steps given below:
- Open terminal on the Linux server or SSH into the server.
- Install certbot an amazing tool from EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) which is used to automatically get and install a free SSL certificate from Lets Encrypt. We recommend you to use the official guide to install certbot which can be found here.
- Run certbot command. For example, if you want to install SSL on nginx server running on your Linux server:
certbot --nginx
- Follow the instruction and enter your email and domain information.
Conclusion
In this article, we have shown you how to get a free domain from Freenom and set it up with Cloudflare as the nameserver. We have also shown you how to run on a Linux server to host your website. This guide is a great starting point for beginners who are new to the world of web hosting and domains. Remember to always keep your server and apps updated for security and stability.
