# Domains & DNS

## Domain Names

So, now we’ve got a server up. But you notice an IP address is kind of ugly and hard to remember… that’s where **domain names** come into play! If you’ve ever typed a website URL, you’ve effectively typed a domain name.

Well, how do IP Addresses turn into domain names? All you need to know is there are a lot of servers out there maintaining a large table of IP addresses to domain name mappings. These are known as **DNS servers**.

### Getting your own domains

If you have the Github Student Developer Pack, you should be able to get a domain name from .tech for free for a year. 

{% embed url="<https://www.name.com/partner/github-students>" %}

If you want to get a cool domain name, you can use this to compare prices from different registrars:

{% embed url="<https://get.tech/github-student-developer-pack>" %}

{% embed url="<https://tld-list.com>" %}

***

Every domain will have the following structure

```
<domain name>:<tld>
nushackers.org
```

For every domain, you can also have a bunch of records for **subdomains**

```
www.nushackers.org (www subdomain)
hacknroll.nushackers.org (hack&roll subdomain for hack&roll site)
wiki.nushackers.org (wiki subdomain, hosted on gitbook!)
```

***

## Shifting DNS Nameservers to Cloudflare

#### Why is this necessary?

* Performance - Fast global DNS resolution
* Free DDoS protection - Protect your websites against attacks
* CDN & caching - Faster worldwide content delivery
* Free SSL - HTTPS Websites

#### How do I do this?

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### In the domain registar > "Manage Nameservers"

<figure><img src="https://2807223923-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTUqAJOgHs57S8lmqdxRV%2Fuploads%2Fz5LqTWs8FTYfKnZp9hTQ%2FScreenshot%202026-03-16%20at%2019-57-22%20My%20Domains%20Name.com.png?alt=media&#x26;token=4870a43e-5dcb-4218-8c75-00415721b21f" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Delete Existing Nameservers&#x20;

Delete all of them, as we will be migrating to Cloudflare's

<figure><img src="https://2807223923-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTUqAJOgHs57S8lmqdxRV%2Fuploads%2FlpRTtnbJIvrR3YMXUBp5%2FScreenshot%202026-03-16%20at%2019-57-35%20yadunut.rocks%20Domain%20Management%20Name.com.png?alt=media&#x26;token=c72077bc-41d1-4792-9f4a-9efdc6b40f3a" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Cloudflare > Domain Management > "Onboard a domain"

<figure><img src="https://2807223923-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTUqAJOgHs57S8lmqdxRV%2Fuploads%2F4qnOTMJ4KQnHdQ6RmBk0%2FScreenshot%202026-03-16%20at%2019-58-30%20Domains%20Yadunand%20Cloudflare.png?alt=media&#x26;token=3b639272-2d09-473e-b8bf-1d2889464db2" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Enter the domain name

<figure><img src="https://2807223923-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTUqAJOgHs57S8lmqdxRV%2Fuploads%2Fxo1zbUd0H0dRtwO2m344%2FScreenshot%202026-03-16%20at%2019-58-48%20Domains%20Yadunand%20Cloudflare.png?alt=media&#x26;token=5599c8ec-37b4-45b5-8602-6aaedf02fe55" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Cloudflare will give you the nameservers to update

<figure><img src="https://2807223923-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTUqAJOgHs57S8lmqdxRV%2Fuploads%2FojuUVPNcYHDikC2L9wYw%2FScreenshot%202026-03-16%20at%2020-01-54%20Domains%20Yadunand%20Cloudflare.png?alt=media&#x26;token=bfffddaa-d5db-45a8-b3a6-a8ce373518ac" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

In this case, it is `dean.ns.cloudflare.com` , and `sue.ns.cloudflare.com`&#x20;
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Update registar with Cloudflare DNS

<figure><img src="https://2807223923-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FTUqAJOgHs57S8lmqdxRV%2Fuploads%2Fic3Xy3xs4q2kzPOBSxlK%2FScreenshot%202026-03-16%20at%2020-02-24%20yadunut.rocks%20Domain%20Management%20Name.com.png?alt=media&#x26;token=f3e15556-be58-47a8-925c-9663512e4109" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

Congrats, your website will be part of Cloudflare's next outage! 🤞

This will likely take a 5-10 minutes to update.

<details>

<summary>Additional: Configuring your own DNS Records</summary>

We’ll start by creating a bunch of A records:

* Leaving the hostname blank will just lead to the main domain
* Add \* as the hostname will route all empty subdomains to a single address
* Time to Live (TTL) is a field on DNS records that controls how long each record is valid and — as a result — how long it takes for record updates to reach your end users.

</details>

### Additional Reading

{% embed url="<https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-dns/>" %}

Fun reading behind the names of Cloudflare Name Servers:

{% embed url="<https://blog.cloudflare.com/whats-the-story-behind-the-names-of-cloudflares-name-servers/>" %}