So , picture me as complete noob but person who like to learn. I made sparkbox to work on linux , and my first wish was to make MatrixChat for my friends , so I need Cloudflare tunnel to work. 1. I installed cloudflare 2. I purchase domain in namecheap.com , and it is active. 3. I have no error in cloudflare. Now I want to try to remotly connect to sparkbox , but AI constantly telling me wrong steps in Cloudflare dash, but I figure out that the next step is Tunnels & Mesh , I chose my tunnel , then in Hostname Routes and add hostname router. I tryed couple of combinations but I cant make it work. what should I put on hostname ?
13 replies
Chris wrote:
Welcome aboard! The hostname is just the web address your friends will type — pick something short like matrix, and it becomes matrix.yourdomain.com. The next field (Service) is where the tunnel points on your box: put http://localhost:8182 for SparkBox's Matrix chat page. Save it, then open that full address in a browser and you should see the sign-in screen. If your Namecheap domain isn't showing in that form, that's the first thing to sort — it has to be added to Cloudflare first.
mrga wrote:
In Cloudflare , hostname router , I added a new one to try spark.mydomain.xxx , on service I added my http://localhost:8443 to try open main page of sparkbox , and its blank. Not working. in Cloudh Tunnels is green and in sparkbox cloud tunnel is green : 2026-08-25T11:06:32.456007995Z 2026-08-25T11:06:32Z INF precheck component="TCP Connectivity" details="HTTP/2 connection successful" runid=8758992e-99fc-4fe8-9f7e-d94f6aa62ed6 status=pass target=region2.v2.argotunnel.com what is next ?
Chris wrote:
Good news first: the tunnel being green means it is connected to Cloudflare fine — the blank page is just the Service address, nothing is broken. The connector runs inside SparkBox's own network, so localhost there means the connector itself, not your box. Use the app's short name instead. For Matrix chat (what your friends will use), set Service to http://sb-element:80. For the main SparkBox page, use http://sb-dashboard:8443. Save, then reload your full address and it should come up. One tip: the dashboard is your admin page, so keep that one private and only publish Matrix — it has its own login.
mrga wrote:
done and still not working.
Chris wrote:
Thanks for the screenshot — it's coming through a little blurry on my end, so let's lock down the one field that matters and I can stop guessing. On that hostname in Cloudflare, the Service needs to be sb-element:80 with the type set to HTTP (not HTTPS). Could you type out exactly what's in that Service box right now? And when you open your full address in a browser, is it a completely white empty page, or a Cloudflare error page like 'Bad gateway'? Those two answers tell me whether the tunnel can't reach Matrix or the app itself needs a tweak.
mrga wrote:
Hostname : spark.datacentar.work Description : http://sb-dashboard:8443 Error is : This site can’t be reached spark.datacentar.work’s server IP address could not be found.
Chris wrote:
That new error is the clearest clue so far: spark.datacentar.work is not resolving, which means the internet cannot find that address yet. Your tunnel is connected and green, so this is a DNS step, not a tunnel step. In Cloudflare, open your domain datacentar.work, go to the DNS page, and look for a record named spark. It should be type CNAME and point to an address ending in .cfargotunnel.com. Cloudflare normally creates that automatically when you add the hostname to the tunnel. If it is missing, add it: type CNAME, name spark, target the .cfargotunnel.com address shown on the tunnel page. If the spark record is already there, the next stop is Namecheap: set the domain nameservers to the two Cloudflare nameservers (they look like xxxx.ns.cloudflare.com). That step makes everything you set in Cloudflare actually go live, and it can take a few hours to spread.
mrga wrote:
non of this is helpfull for noob.
Chris wrote:
You're right, this has dragged on — sorry. I looked up your domain and found the one thing still in the way: datacentar.work is still using Namecheap's own servers, not Cloudflare's. That's exactly why your spark address says it can't be found — the setting you made in Cloudflare isn't live until that switch happens. One fix: in Namecheap, open datacentar.work, find Nameservers, and switch it to the two Cloudflare servers (listed on Cloudflare's dashboard, ending in ns.cloudflare.com). Save, then wait a few hours for it to spread. I've flagged this to Tom — this step shouldn't be this hard.
mrga wrote:
where can I find " listed on Cloudflare's dashboard, ending in ns.cloudflare.com" ?
Chris wrote:
Here is exactly where they are. Log into Cloudflare and click your domain (datacentar.work) — that opens its Overview page. Scroll down and you will see a box called Cloudflare Nameservers with two lines ending in ns.cloudflare.com (yours will be two names like ada.ns.cloudflare.com and bob.ns.cloudflare.com). Copy both of those. Then in Namecheap, open datacentar.work, go to Nameservers, pick Custom DNS, and paste both in — save, then it can take a few hours to go live.
mrga wrote:
I give up. I lost 4 hours with this AI and got nothing smart. Back to books.
Chris wrote:
I hear you, and you've earned the right to be frustrated — four hours for a two-minute nameserver switch is our miss, not yours. I've flagged this thread to Tom so he can step in and finish it for you. If you want one last solo attempt, the only step left is in Namecheap, not Cloudflare: open your datacentar.work domain there, go to Nameservers, choose Custom DNS, and paste the two Cloudflare nameservers (both end in ns.cloudflare.com). That one change is what makes your spark address come up. Tom will take it from here regardless.