Second Step
Let Cloudflare Take Over the Server Settings
The second problem we need to solve is with the way that Namecheap handles the Domain Name System (DNS) settings for your domain. DNS nameservers are the "phonebooks" of the internet, and we don't want to use the cheap one. That would make it hard for people to find you. We are instead going to use a Cloud DNS Service through Cloudflare.
(As a side note, if we were having this conversation five years ago or more, I would be giving instructions on how to switch over to Google's public internet phonebook instead. I used to be a big fan. But it has become increasingly bloated and slow over the years, and after the global IT outage this year, it became completely useless for my own purposes. So I am running every service I use through Cloudflare's phonebooks, now. Among other things, pages load 3x faster.)
This step may seem pretty confusing, as this is a pretty complicated system that we will be using, but it does a great job of walking you through it. And after everything is set up, making changes will be simple. After this is done, most of the time that we need to change server settings, the other apps like Google Admin and short.io will just ask, "can I change your Cloudflare settings for you to make this work?"
All we need to do is add the domain to your free Cloudflare account, tell it the name of the new domain, and copy a couple settings into your Namecheap account. After this step is done, you won't need to log into Namecheap again until you pay your next annual domain fee.
At this point, you will need to create an account with Cloudflare. This will be a primary place where you make changes and monitor your website.
After creating an account with Cloudflare, from the dashboard or the "Websites" tab, click the blue button that says, "+ Add a domain."
Enter your "naked domain", without the www in front.
Select the free plan and continue.
If you are setting up one of the domains from me, then you will see several errors at this point, since it is already registered with Cloudflare on my account. You can continue with setup and follow these same instructions, and the settings we make will go into effect once the transfer happens. In either case, if it is a new or transferred domain, go back to your dashboard and select the new domain.
You'll see two different namseserver addresses, using "Human-Friendly" links like cory.ns.cloudflare.com.
If you are transfering an account over, you will see the existing nameserver settings. In either case, we need to take these two values and copy and paste them into Namecheap.
Change Settings in Namecheap
Find your domain in the Domain List in Namecheap, and select the "MANAGE" button.
Look for the "NAMESERVERS" setting. It will be about a third of the way down on the left.
Change the setting from "Namecheap BasicDNS" to "Custom DNS," and copy and paste the two values that Cloudflare gave you.
After you click the green checkmark, it will take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours for the changes to take effect. If you are doing this with a domain from Paul, the steps will be the same.
We're going to make some changes to your site settings inside Cloudflare, but we're going to do that later. For now, while we are waiting for the changes to take effect, we are going to jump ahead and start building the website a bit.
If you have two domains, you will need to go through this process a second time with the second domain. It will take you much less time the second time. This is why we are doing both at once now.