What is A record, CNAME record, MX record?

[Michele D.]

Hello

Can you define some terms on hosting such as A record, CNAME record, MX record ?
what is it? and how to use them in any cases?

Thanks if you can give me more details on that

Regards,
Michele D.

 

[TeoC NETCreator]

Hello!

"DNS" record
A DNS record a list of "directions" for where to send the user who navigate through web. There are three types of user requests:

1. HTTP - The user request to access WebPage.

2. FTP - Request to FTP server (it could be on other server than HTTP request and MAIL request).

3. E-MAIL - Request to Mail Server (it could be on other server than HTTP request and FTP request). It is known a MX record.

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

Explain: The server where domain DNS points to, contains A records. An A record could point domains/subdomains to read content from different IPs/Servers. For example: mydomain.com points to 192.168.0.0 and blog.mydomain.com points to 192.168.0.1 -> So, mydomain.com "reads" the content dedicated to it, from 192.168.0.0 and blog.mydomain.com "reads" the content dedicated to it from 192.168.0.1. Two or more websites and/or subdomains could "read" dedicated contents from the same IP.

"CNAME" record
The CNAME record maps a name to another name.

For example, you can point the www. mydomain.com directly to mydomain.com (you can do the same with something like blog.mydomain.com etc). So, you can point www. mydomain.com directly to an "A" record.

Hope this help!

 

[BabyASP]

An A-record is an entry in your DNS zone file that maps each domain name (e.g. yourdomain.com) or subdomain (e.g. subdomain.yourdomain.com) to an IP address. In other words, the A-record specifies the IP address to which the user would be sent for each domain or subdomain. This means that you can have different subdomains of your website resolving to different IP addresses, which could be useful if they are hosted on different servers.

CNAME is something that to use to map your domain. For example, you have domain abc.com. Then you want to browse it via www .abc.com. Then, you need to add CNAME record

MX record is for email. Without MX record, your email wont work

 

[Liliana]

Liliana

Only for mapping domain like www. abc.com ?
If I want to alias to subdomain. abc.com then I should use CNAME or A record?
Which I should use and why? can you explain in details with any examples?

 

[TejasWebHosting]

TejasWebHosting

You would want to use a CNAME record for your sub domain assuming that the sub domain resolved to the same server or address. You CAN use either, but Cname would be preferred.

A records would be used to point to a sub domain to a different IP address.

I hope that helps you get started!

 

[ggsmarket]

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

CNAME like redirecting. Example: want to add or remove www from your domain

MX is used for Email setting