What are DNS records?

What are DNS records? That is a good question. They are an important part of your domain name and make sure your domain name 'knows' where your website is. In this article we determine which DNS records you can create with us and what they can do for you.

A records

An A record allows you to link your domain or subdomain to an IPv4 address. An IPv4 address is, for example, '12 .34.56.78 '.

If you want your visitors to visit your website through 'www.domain.extension' and your hosting package is on a server with the IP address '12.34.56.78', enter 'www.domain.extension' as the name or Host of the DNS record and the IP address as content.

AAAA records

This type of DNS record works the same as the A record, except that you do not associate your domain or subdomain with an IPv4 address, but an IPv6 address. For example, an IPv6 address is '0:0:0:0:0:ffff:c22:384e'.

TXT records

TXT records, also called text records, are used to add additional information to your domain name.

G Suite, previously Google Apps, uses this type of record to verify that you own the domain name. A TXT record is also used to add an SPF record to a domain name.

MX records

An MX record is responsible for the exchange of e-mail. The content of this type of record is usually an A record that refers to the server that has to handle the e-mail. An example:

AFBEELDING 1

You see that the MX record refers to 'mail.neostrada.nl'. This is an A record and in turn refers to the IP address '12.34.56.78'. The server behind that IP address handles the e-mail. You also see that the priority is '10'. This means that this MX record is used first if there are multiple MX records. A MX record with priority '20' is used as the second.

CNAME records

With a CNAME record, you can copy an A record. If you have a 'sub.domain.extension' A record that refers to '12.34.56.78', you can create a 'copy.domain.extension' CNAME record that refers to 'sub.domain.extension'. The 'copy.domain.extension.' record then has the same IP address as the 'sub.domain.extension' record.

Beware: Never apply a CNAME on the main domain, this always has to be a subdomain. When an CNAME gets applied on the main domain the DNS will stop functioning normally and services like email will stop working.

SRV records

With a SRV record, link your domain to a server that provides a particular service, such as a SIP service for telephony.

At the name of the record enter an alias and protocol of the service together with the domain name. For example, '_sip._tcp.domein.extension'. The content of the record must contain the priority, gravity, port and target. For example, '10 5 5060 sip.domain.extension'.

If you need to add the priority you can do that in a separate input box in our DNS.

This knowledgebase article was last updated on: 25 February 2019