What are DNS Zone Records?

We provide Cloud DNS on demand for all domain names registered with HostPico. Before you commence setup we expect that you are familiar with the following terminologies:

  • CNAME or Canonical Name

CNAME Records are used to define an alias hostname. A CNAME record takes this format: alias.domain.name IN CNAME otherhost.domain.name.

This defines alias.domain.name as an alias for the host whose canonical (standard) name is otherhost.domain.name. You cannot set an IP for CNAME or a CNAME to an IP.

  • ‘A’ Record or Address Record

An A record gives you the IP address of a domain. That way, users that try to go to www.example.com will get to the right IP address. An A record or “Address Record” maps a hostname to a 32-bit IPv4 address. An “A” Record takes this format (example):

Name => A => {IP)
e.g ftp.domain.com => A => 127.0.0.1

To enter a DNS Zone as a “wildcard”, the entry will look like this:

*.domain.com => A  => xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

The x’s represnt your particular IP address. The star takes “anything” .domain.com and points it to your server’s IP address. This way, if someone mistakenly types too many or too few w’s, they’ll still see your website. This is also useful for setting up subdomains on your server, relieving you of the duty of adding an additional “A” record for the subdomain.

  • MX Record or Mail Exchange Record

Mail Exchange Record maps a domain name to a list of mail exchange servers for that domain. A zone can have one or more Mail Exchange (MX) records. These records point to hosts that accept mail messages on behalf of the host. A host can be an ‘MX’ for itself. MX records need not point to a host in the same zone. An ‘MX’ record takes this format:

host.domain.name. => MX => otherhost.domain.name. => PRIORITY

eg.
domain.name. => MX => alt2.aspmx.l.google.com => 5

The ‘MX’ priority numbers (value 0 to 65535) signify the order in which mailers select ‘MX’ records when they attempt mail delivery to the host. The lower the ‘MX’ number, the higher the host is in priority.

  • SPF/TXT Record

The TXT Record allows an administrator to insert arbitrary text into a DNS record. For example, this record is used to implement the Sender Policy Framework and DomainKeys specifications.