DNS Record Definitions Print

Summary

DNS (Domain Name System) entries take a human friendly name, such as store.example.com, and translates it to an IP address. DNS can be quickly updated with some propagation time. There are a number of DNS Entries you are able to create. The following DNS Entries can be created or modified from within the DNS Zone Editor.

A Record

An A record (Address Record) points a domain or subdomain to an IP address.

CNAME

A CNAME (Canonical Name) points one domain or subdomain to another domain name, allowing you to update one A Record each time you make a change, regardless of how many Host Records need to resolve to that IP address.

MX Entry

An MX (Mail Exchanger) Entry directs email to a particular mail server. Like a CNAME, MX Entries must point to a domain and never point directly to an IP address.

TXT Entry

A TXT (Text) Entry was originally intended for human-readable text. These records are dynamic and can be used for several purposes.

SRV record

An SRV (Service) record points one domain to another domain name using a specific destination port. SRV records allow specific services, such as VOIP or IM, to be be directed to a separate location.

AAAA Record

An AAAA record points a domain or subdomain to an IPv6 address.

DNS Glossary:

Zone File:

This is where all the DNS records are stored for a domain.

Host Record:

This is the domain or subdomain you wish to use. The @ symbol is used to indicate the root domain itself. In our example the Host Record 'ftp' would be for the subdomain ftp.google.com and '@' would be google.com itself.

Points to:

This is the destination server that the domain or subdomain is sending the traffic to.

TTL:

The 'time to live' value indicates the amount of time the record is cached by a DNS Server, such as your Internet service provider. The default (and lowest accepted) value is 14400 seconds (4 hours). You do not normally need to modify this value.

Action:

This allows you to modify or remove existing records.

Weight:

This is similar to priority, as it controls the order in which multiple records are used. Records are grouped with other records that have the same Priority value. As with MX Entries, lower numbers are used before higher numbers.

Port:

This is used by the server or computer to process traffic to specific services, ensuring that all traffic comes through the door that it's expected on.

Target:

This is the destination that the record is sending the traffic to.

This record would send traffic from service.example.com to listerning.otherexample.com over port 5060. SRV records generally require advanced knowledge of server administration to use.