Enable SiteLock TrueShield and TrueSpeed

This article is part of our series on getting started with SiteLock. For other helpful tips on activating and using SiteLock services, please see the following articles:

TrueShield and TrueSpeed are available on all SiteLock plans. These solutions simultaneously protect your website from malicious traffic and deliver your content to legitimate visitors faster via a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that uses servers around the world.

If you have purchased SiteLock, we highly recommend ensuring that TrueShield and TrueSpeed are properly configured. You may activate this feature in 3 main steps:

1. Activate TrueShield and Get Your New DNS Records
2. Update Your Website DNS
3. Update Your MX Record

Step 1: Navigate to Your SiteLock Dashboard

To navigate to your SiteLock Dashboard:

1. Log into your Customer Portal.
2. From the Dashboard, click SiteLock Security under the hosting package you purchased SiteLock for.

   

3. Click the shield icon, underneath Settings, across the domain you wish to manage.
   

Step 2: Activate TrueShield and Get Your New DNS Records

To activate TrueShield/TrueSpeed and get the new DNS records required for Step 3:

1. From your SiteLock Dashboard, usually, a Configure pop-up would appear. Click Configure.

   

   However, if it does not, locate the Configure TrueShield icon:

    

2. Hover and click Configure TrueShield.
   
   
    
   If the TrueShield icon says Upgrade instead of Configure: 

   Click Here to Know How to Upgrade

   1. Click the Upgrade TrueShield icon:
      
      
   2. You may click SiteLock TrueShield: Basic Free! to obtain the free TrueShield and TrueSpeed feature included in all plans.
      
      
   3. Click Submit
3. In the TrueShiel Wizard page, if your site has SSL and you have SiteLock Trueshield Professional or higher, click Step 1 to allow SiteLock to detect your site’s SSL.

   

   If you have done this, SiteLock will provide you with a TXT record to apply in cPanel. Once you have added the TXT record in cPanel, it may take up to 24 hours for SiteLock to add the site to their SSL.

   If, for any reason, this step has not been completed within 24 hours, please contact HostGator via phone or Live Chat to address the issue.
4. If you have NOT upgraded TrueShield to include SSL, click Step 2 instead. (Step 1 will not be covered in this tutorial.) SiteLock will provide you with DNS records to update in cPanel in Step 3.

   

Step 3: Update Your Website DNS

To update the DNS records for your domain:

1. Log into cPanel.
2. Click the Advanced DNS Zone Editor icon.
   
   
3. Select the applicable domain from the drop-down menu.
   
   
4. Locate the A record for your domain and click Edit. 
   
5. Change the IP address to the first IP provided by SiteLock then click Edit Record.
   
   
6. Under Add A Record:
   1. Enter the applicable domain name, followed by a period, in the Name field.
   2. Enter 14400 for the TTL.
   3. Select A as the Type.
   4. Enter the second IP address provided by SiteLock in the Address field.
   5. Click Add Record.
      
7. Next, locate your www Record for your domain and click Edit next to it.
   
8. Select CNAME from the drop-down for Type, if it is not already selected.
9. Enter the CNAME provided to you by SiteLock in the CNAME box.
10. Click Edit Record to save.
    

Both A and CNAME records take up to 8 hours to propagate, during which time your domain may not correctly resolve to SiteLock's CDN and Firewall consistently. Please continue to Step 4 to configure your mail records.

Step 4: Update Your MX Record

By default, many cPanel accounts route your email to the same location as your domain name. Routing your email through TrueShield may cause issues, so you will want to update your MX records if this is the case.

To check to see if further configuration is necessary, you may log into cPanel and click the MX Entry icon. If the record in the MX Records section of this page is already set to the mail.subdomain, no further configuration is necessary.

If your MX record is not pointed to a subdomain, then you will need to configure your email to route independently of your domain. The following article will assist with making this change:

• How to Route Email to Your Server When Your Domain Is Pointed Externally