Mesh nodes route traffic by hostname instead of IP

You can now add hostname routes to a Cloudflare Mesh node, in addition to CIDR routes.

1. Client device

   Requests wiki.internal.local

2. DNS query ↓

3. Cloudflare Gateway

   Returns a token IP, then rewrites the destination to the real private IP.

   100.80.0.0/16

4. Hostname route ↓

5. Mesh node

   Forwards traffic to the host on the local network

6. ↓

7. Private host

   wiki.internal.local · 10.0.0.50

Instead of managing IP ranges, you can attract traffic for a hostname to a Mesh node:

• Private hostname (for example, wiki.internal.local) — reach an internal application by name, which is useful when it has an unknown or ephemeral IP. On Mesh you do not need to run a DNS server; a local hosts-file entry on the node is enough, or you can use a Gateway resolver policy for split DNS.
• Public hostname (for example, www.example.com) — route that hostname's traffic through the node and egress via the node's public IP.

Go to Mesh

For setup steps, prerequisites, and DNS options, refer to Hostname routes.