Web Hosting & DNS Records Demystifying

Let’s walk through Web Hosting & DNS Records Demystifying

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There are a few main DNS records I want to clear up as part of Web Hosting & DNS Records Demystifying. This is so that you aren’t confused when it comes time to launch your website with your web hosting provider. Below I break down the main records you will need in editing your DNS records and going live with your website:

The Top 5 most commonly edited DNS Record Types

The DNS servers, as part of your web hosting package, create different kinds of DNS records to provide important information about a domain or hostname, particularly its current IP address. The most common DNS record types are:

A Record (Address Mapping record)

Also known as a DNS host record, stores a hostname. More specifically, this DNS record maps a domain name to the server which hosts the domain. In other words, GoDaddy’s servers, WP Engine’s servers, etc.

Whoever you bought your hosting package from you will have to map the domain to your hosting provider. Which is done with an A Record. It is one of the main records you will add when connecting up domains and getting your site live on the internet.

CNAME Record (Canonical Name record)

Can be used to alias a hostname to another hostname.

Examples of common aliases, first and foremost, the “www” one, as in www.example.com. Also, you can use landing.example.com, or say you have a store, you can create a store.example.com. These can all be optionally added to your main domain name. One benefit is that you don’t have to buy an entirely new domain for something still related to your main domain as in those examples I mentioned before.

MX Record (Mail exchanger record)

This DNS record specifies an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) email server for your domain, used to route outgoing emails to an email server.

SMTP is simply a standard internet communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers will use SMTP to send and receive mail messages.

Essentially, you will end up adding MX Records once you get a mail provider such as Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, etc. This allows you to use your domain for emails. For example, www.google.com will be able to use johnsmith@google.com.

NS Record (Nameserver records)

As NS stands for ‘nameserver,’ the nameserver record indicates which DNS server has authority over that domain. It explains which server contains the actual DNS records. Basically, NS records tell the Internet where to go to find out a domain’s IP address. Which helps it get connected up and found on the internet in the first place.

A domain can have multiple NS records, a primary nameserver, a secondary nameserver, and so on. If you don’t have NS records set up properly, users will be unable to load a website or application. So this one is a big deal for getting your site live on the internet.

Typically you will be given a default set of nameservers once you buy a hosting package. Sometimes you will want to change your NS Records to another hosting provider if you switch from say GoDaddy’s hosting to WP Engine’s hosting. This goes for any hosting provider.

Text Record (TXT Record)

This record typically carries machine-readable data such as verifying you are the owner of a domain, setting up a sender policy framework (Also known as SPF record), etc.

A common example of using a TXT record is when your first start to connect up your Google My Business, you will be given a TXT record from Google to add to your DNS Settings. This lets Google know that you in fact own your domain and its hosting.  If you don’t have access Google won’t allow your Google My Business to be connected to that site.

Another common example is setting up the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) which is an email authentication protocol. SPF records get added as TXT records in the DNS servers tells recipient email servers that a message came from an authorized sender IP address or could be from a phishing campaign. It’s an essential component in email security and gives administrators a way to block phishing emails from reaching an intended victim.

Other Less Commonly Edited DNS Records

Below are less commonly edited DNS records. There might be instances where you need these after your site goes live on the internet.

Let’s go through these with some examples:

PTR Record (Reverse-lookup Pointer records)

Allows a DNS records to provide an IP address and receive a hostname (reverse DNS lookup). A DNS pointer record (PTR for short) provides the domain name associated with an IP address. A DNS PTR record is exactly the opposite of the ‘A’ record, which provides the IP address associated with a domain name.

This is commonly edited if you are experiencing problems with your emails. It only happens when there are errors with the PTR record in your DNS.

When someone attempts a search with a domain name in their browser, a DNS lookup occurs. This process matches the domain name to the IP address.

A reverse DNS lookup is the opposite of this process. It is a search that starts with the IP address and looks up the domain name.

AAAA Record (IP Version 6 Address record)

This one stores a hostname and its corresponding IPv6 address.

CERT Record (Certificate record)

A CERT Record stores encryption certificates—PKIX, SPKI, PGP, and so on.

Service Location (SRV Record)

This is a service location record, like MX (Mail Records) but for other communication protocols.

Start of Authority (SOA Record)

This record appears at the beginning of a DNS zone file and indicates the Authoritative Name Server for the current DNS zone, contact details for the domain administrator, domain serial number, and information on how frequently DNS information for this zone should be refreshed.

I hope you enjoyed this blog, please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions and if this helped you at all in your marketing efforts, and please feel free to check out my other blogs, thank you!