DNS/Hosting/WordPress Guide Notes

Part 1: DNS & Domain Name Management

This section covers what is a DNS and how to manage a domain name for a new client

The first step of the process is to make sure we have the ability to manage a domain name. There are 2 common scenarios in this:

• Case 1: You bought the domain through a Registar (for example godaddy) and you have full control through that registar. You want to host the website and the emails on the US server

  Note: You can also see the Cloudflare Part explained in the following 1-5 steps in a short instructions video here

  1. Login on Cloudflare and click the "Add a Site" button.

  2. Enter the domain name, WITHOUT any https or www before. ie: example.com and click "Add site". In order for this step to work the domain needs to be already bought/activated properly first in godaddy.

  3. Select the "Free" plan and click "confirm".

  4. Cloudflare will try to scan and find your current dns/domain settings. After this is done just click "Continue"

  5. On the screen Cloudflare will tell you which nameservers links you need to replace to your current registrar (GoDaddy in our case). Copy/paste them in a notepad if you want as we need them for the next steps. Their step by step instructions should be pretty explanatory but are added here as well. Click "Continue".

  6. Login on your registrar(goDaddy) and on your admin panel find the domain you want to manage (it should the same you created in Cloudflare)

  7. Remove the previous default nameservers and replace them with the ones from step (5) that Cloudflare gave you.

  8. Allow 24-72 hours to pass for propagation to complete (normally it is much faster within the day or the hour) and after that you should have the total control of the DNS transfered to Cloudflare

  9. After the propagation is completed login on Cloudflare and search for the domain that you created/transfered to Cloudflare

  10. Click on the "DNS" icon at the top of screen

      

  11. Make sure the DNS records look something like the image bellow. If there is a _domainconnect CNAME record leave it as it is as it is from clousflare.
      If you want to edit a record just click on it.
      If you want to add a new record click the Add record button

  Important Note: There is also an extra DNS record you need to add in order to secure emails more, but you can do it only after you setup the hosting account on the US Server. You can find in a latter section (Email Section) by clicking here

  

  • You need one A record called * (asterisk symbol) that will have the following IP: 158.106.138.138 (which is the server IP of your hosting US Server). Make sure the little cloud icon on the "Proxy status" is grey and says "DNS only". (you can change that by clicking on it)

  • You need one A record called your domain name (example.com, without any https or www) that will have the following IP: 158.106.138.138 (which is the server IP of your hosting US Server). Make sure the little cloud icon on the "Proxy status" is grey and says "DNS only". (you can change that by clicking on it)

  • You need one CNAME called mail that will have the following value: your domain name (example.com, without any https or www). Make sure the little cloud icon on the "Proxy status" is grey and says "DNS only". (you can change that by clicking on it)

  • You need one CNAME called www that will have the following value: your domain name (example.com, without any https or www). Make sure the little cloud icon on the "Proxy status" is grey and says "DNS only". (you can change that by clicking on it)

  • You need one MX record called your domain name (example.com, without any https or www) that will have the following value mail.example.com. Same line in the Priority field just add number 1

  • You need one TXT record called your domain name (example.com, without any https or www) that will have the following value: v=spf1 ip4:158.106.138.138 ?all

  • You can leave the rest of the generated stuff as they are

  Wait a couple of hours to the next day (sometimes even minutes) and the US Server should now be ready to host the new website/emails

• Case 2: A client bought/already owns a domain through their Registar (for example through their personal godaddy,namecheap,anything etc) and they asked you to manage only the hosting part, nothing else

  In this case since the client doesn't wish to transfer their DNS/management of the domain to you totally then you should't involve your Cloudflare at all but do the following:

  1. Login through their registrar admin panel(names.co.uk, GoDaddy, whatever they give you).

  2. Through their admin panel find the domain they asked you to manage

  3. You need one A record called your domain name (example.com, without any https or www) that will have the following IP: 158.106.138.138 (which is the server IP of your hosting US Server)

  4. You need one CNAME called www that will have the following value: your domain name (example.com, without any https or www)

  5. If and only if they ask you to host emails as well, make sure that they do not have any existing emails already or else they will be lost.Transfering emails from one host to another is a big subject/project that is not covered here. After you are certain that they are happy for you to host their new emails then add the following:

     • You need one MX record called your domain name (example.com, without any https or www) that will have the following value mail.example.com. Same line in the Priotity field just add number 1

     • You need one CNAME called mail that will have the following value: your domain name (example.com, without any https or www). Make sure the little cloud icon on the "Proxy status" is grey and says "DNS only". (you can change that by clicking on it)

     • You need one TXT record called your domain name (example.com, without any https or www) that will have the following value: v=spf1 ip4:158.106.138.138 ?all

     • Important Note: There is also an extra DNS record you need to add in order to secure emails more, but you can do it only after you setup the hosting account on the US Server. You can find in a latter section (Email Section) by clicking here

Wait a couple of hours to the next day (sometimes even minutes) and the US Server should now be ready to host the new website/emails

Part 2: US Server Management (Whm and cPanel)

2.1: How to create a new hosting account in the US Server

Once the DNS is sorted and the website hosting is pointed at the US Server do the following:

1. Login in the US Server WHM/admin and click List Accounts from the left sidebar. After the domains/accounts load, click on the Create new account button at the top of the screen.



2. Add Domain (example.com, without any https or www)

3. Add a username for this account. Preferably something relevant to that domain. This username will be used if you want to give restricted cpanel access for that domain to a client and cannot be changed

4. Add a password. Make sure the password is not the same as your main admin reseller passwordbut a different one. Ideally just auto-generate a password there and store it somewhere, you are not going to use it anyway since you have admin access everywhere. This password will be used if you want to give restricted cpanel access for that domain to a client.

5. Add an email that you have already access (for example your personal admin email etc)

6. Choose the default Package "reseller_Standard"

7. In the Mail Routing Settings select the first option: Automatically Detect Configuration (recommended)

8. In the DNS Settings tick the: Use the namervers specified at the Domain's Registrar (ignore locally specified nameservers)

9. Click the "Create" button at the bottom of the page to create the account. After that you should have created succesfully hosting in the US server.

   The above settings should look something like this:

   

   

2.2: How to create Emails to an account in the US Server

In order to do this step you need to have setup an account with the US Server WHM/admin panel like explained in the previous 2.1 section.

Click on the "CP" orange icon next to your domain from the list of the domains in the US Server WHM/admin

Now you will see at the top left of your screen the logo of the "cPanel". You are now within the cPanel admin dashboard of that specific account.

How to update the security/increase email deliverability

Note: At this point and since you have access to the hosting account, you need to add an aditional DNS record on Cloudflare that will secure the email accounts more from spamming. You only have to do once this step and is the following:

Click on the Email Deliverability area in the cpanel area

Check if the "Email Delivaribility Status" is "Valid". If yes you can ignore the following. If it is not valid then click on Manage

Here you have to copy on somewhere the following highlighted "DKIM" values: Name and Value

Login on Cloudflare (or wherever the DNS management is!) like on Part 1 and add the following TXT Record with the values you copied/pasted from the previous step. It should look something like this:

After the above part is done (it just needs to be done once only), you can now proceed to the Emails creation

1. Click on the Email Accounts

   

2. From there you will see all the email accounts (if any) that exist for this domain. Click on the Create button at the right

3. In the username field add the email account you wish to create

4. Create a password (make sure you store it somewhere, although you can easily reset it as an admin)

5. In the Storage Space select Unlimited

6. Click on the Create button

   

7. You will now be transfered to the previous screen with all the email accounts for this domain. Find the email you just created and click the Check Email button

8. From that screen you can now manage this email. Somewhere in the screen there should be a Set up email on your device. Select the device you will use (Apple, Android or the last option) and then add the client's email that can be accessed from that device. for example their personal gmail or anything that have already access. After that click "Send"

If you(or your client) wish to access the email through a web browser, you can do it through this url: example.com/webmail by using the email and password that were set up in the previous steps. The above url will load their personal email settings page (only for that specific email) so they can set it up however they want, for example to setup forwarding rules etc etc. If they want to check their email they just have to click on the Open button on top left

2.3: How to install WordPress to an account in the US Server

In order to do this step properly you need to have setup an account with the US Server WHM/admin panel like explained in the previous 2.1 section.

Click on the "CP" orange icon next to your domain from the list of the domains in the US Server WHM/admin

Now you will see at the top left of your screen the logo of the "cPanel". You are now within the cPanel admin dashboard of that specific account.

1. Scroll at the bottom of the page till you find the "Softaculous Apps Installer" section. From there click on the WordPress icon.

   

2. Click on the Install Now

   

3. In the next screen complete the following fields:

   

   • In the Choose Installation URL field, make sure you select https://, followed by the domain name (example.com) and the last field must be empty!

   • In the Site Settings fields (site name, description) you can put whatever you want for now as they will be better changed anyway through the dashboard later

   • In the Admin Account fields (admin username, admin password) make sure you add a username and password that you will remember (store them somewhere if necessary). Same goes for the Admin Email field, make sure you add an email you have access to.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Install" button

5. After a few minutes/seconds the installation must be over and you should be able to access your new Wordpress website. You can also login as admin the same way you do as a wordpress admin using the username/password you provided in the previous steps.

2.4: How to activate SSL manually (if automatic fails) to an account in the US Server

Do this step only after the domain and the hosting is setup correctly in the US Server. Ideally allow 1-2 days after that to make sure everything is setup correctly

Click on the "CP" orange icon next to your domain from the list of the domains in the US Server WHM/admin

Now you will see at the top left of your screen the logo of the "cPanel". You are now within the cPanel admin dashboard of that specific account.

On the top right click in the blue wrench icon. If the blue wrench icon is not there, then the SSL is already setup correctly and you don't have to do the following steps within this section!

In the next screen click Run Auto SSL

Part 3: WordPress Themes

3.1: How to configurate SSL in a WordPress website

Sometimes WordPress needs a couple of extra settings enabled for the already activated from the US Server SSL which you can do them through this plugin.

• Install the "Really Simple SSL" plugin

• Go to the Dashboard > Settings > SSL

• Have the following settings enabled like in the image bellow

3.2: How to install a WordPress Theme to an account in the US Server

Most of the times each theme have their own documentation that you should go through. The standard process is to upload the .zip file of the theme (just the theme, not any other included files). Always read the theme documentation because each case can slightly differ.

3.3: How to install the demo content of a WordPress Theme (if it exists!)

Follow the instructions of the documentation of the theme on how to do this step. Always read the theme documentation because each case can slightly differ.

3.4: How to add Items in the Navigation Bar (generic WordPress knowledge)

This should be generic WordPress knowledge. Always read the theme documentation because each case can slightly differ, but chances are the navigation menu items will follow a similar default WordPress approach. You can find detailed step by step guide here: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Menu_User_Guide

3.5: Elementor Basic Functions

You can do a lot of stuff with Elementor. Try to use their official documentation https://elementor.com/blog/base-theme-with-elementor/ which in theory should work side by side with the specific theme settings.