FAQ

How Do I Do If the ICP License of an Acceleration Domain Name Expires?

You must apply for a new license from the MIIT.

• If a new license is obtained before the original one expires, your CDN service is not affected.
• If a license has expired and no new license has been obtained yet, CDN bans the domain name and changes its status to Rejected. After the new license is obtained, you can apply to unban the domain name on the CDN console. For details, see Reviewing a Domain Name.

Can a Level-2 Domain Be Connected to CDN If Only Its Level-1 Domain Name Is Licensed by the MIIT, but Its Level-2 Domain Name Is Resolved Outside the Chinese Mainland?

Yes. If the level-1 domain name has been licensed by the MIIT, the level-2 domain name does not need to be licensed. In addition, a domain name that requires acceleration services only outside the Chinese mainland does not need to be licensed by the MIIT.

Can I Use CDN If My Domain Name Is Not Licensed?

If the service area of your domain name includes Chinese mainland, obtain an ICP license from the MIIT before using CDN. If the service area of your domain name is Outside Chinese mainland, the ICP license is not required before using CDN.

Why Do I Get Request Timed Out When Trying to Ping an Acceleration Domain Name?

For security purposes, ping operations are not allowed. You can run the nslookup command to check whether CDN has taken effect. For details, see Checking Whether the CNAME Record Has Taken Effect.

How Do I Deploy CDN and WAF Together?

Resolve your acceleration domain name to CDN, and then change the origin address of your acceleration domain name to WAF's CNAME value. CDN forwards the traffic to WAF. Then WAF filters out the illegitimate traffic and routes only the legitimate traffic back to your origin server. In this way, WAF protects CDN accelerated traffic.

To prevent other users from adding your domain name to WAF in advance (this will cause interference on your domain protection), you are advised to add a subdomain name and TXT record of WAF at your DNS provider.

For details, see Domain Setup with Both CDN and WAF Deployed.

What Are the Differences Between an Acceleration Domain Name and an Origin Domain?

• Acceleration domain names are provided by you for CDN acceleration. A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control within the Internet, such as a website, an email address, or an FTP server.
• An origin domain is the domain name of your origin server.

Can Multiple Acceleration Domain Names Use the Same Origin Server IP Address?

Yes. Different acceleration domain names can use the same origin IP address.

If a Domain Name Is Not Registered on the Chinese Mainland but Its CDN Service Area Is the Chinese Mainland, Is an ICP License Required for It?

Whether a domain name needs to be licensed does not depend on the region of the domain name provider or the area where the website server is. All that matters is the service area of your domain name. If the service area includes the Chinese mainland, the domain name must be licensed by the MIIT before being added as an acceleration domain name.

Can an Origin Domain Name Be the Same as an Acceleration Domain Name?

No.

When a user requests content on an acceleration domain name, if the desired content is not cached on CDN PoPs, CDN PoPs need to pull content from the origin server. If the origin domain is the same as the acceleration domain name, the user's request will be repeatedly directed to CDN PoPs, and CDN PoPs will not be able to pull content from the origin server.

Can Wildcards Be Used as Part of an Acceleration Domain Name?

Yes. A wildcard, *, allows multiple level-2 domain names to be included by the same value. All these secondary domain names point to the same IP address. If you add *.test.com to CDN as an acceleration domain name and have it resolved to the CNAME provided by CDN, all of the level-2 domain names under *.test.com, such as a.test.com, will enjoy CDN acceleration by default. However, level-3 domain names (such as b.a.test.com) would not.

The following are the rules for adding wildcards to domain names:

• If you add a wildcard domain name to a particular account, you cannot add any of the level-2 domain names under that domain name to other accounts.
• You will be billed for the acceleration service provided to all of the level-2 domain names under a wildcard domain name. If there are multiple level-2 domain names, billing will be based on the traffic generated by the wildcard domain name, not on each of the level-2 domain names.