Cloudflare works as a protective layer between website visitors and the web server. When someone opens the website, the request first passes through Cloudflare and then checks the request for harmful traffic, suspicious bots, DDoS attacks, and other security threats. Only safe requests are forwarded to the web server hosted in the cloud.
The cloud security settings allow web traffic on ports 80 and 443 only from approved Cloudflare IP addresses. This helps prevent users or attackers from accessing the server directly. After the server processes the request and prepares the webpage, it sends the content back through Cloudflare. Cloudflare then delivers the webpage to the visitor.
This process helps protect the server, reduce unwanted traffic, and improve website performance.