DNS Manager Definitions

A Record

Short for Address Record: Maps an IP address to a domain name.  An A Record is also referred to as a host or hostname.

CNAME Record 

Short for Canonical Name Record: A special type of DNS record in a DNS database used to create an alias from one hostname to another.

For example: If, www.YourHostedDomainName.com, is a CNAME to, YourHostedDomainName.com - then this means that anyone accessing www.YourHostedDomainName.com will be pointed tothe same IP address as YourHostedDomainName.com.

This is useful when your IP address changes, since you will only have to update the YourHostedDomainName.com DNS entry and www.YourHostedDomainName.com will automatically point to the right place.

Note: We recommend the use of individual A Records rather than CNAME aliases.   It is recognized as a "best practice" among DNS experts to minimize the use of CNAME aliases.

MX Record

Short for Mail Exchanger Record: This DNS record is an entry in a DNS database that identifies the email server that handles email for a given domain or subdomain.

TXT Record 

TXT Record provides the ability to associate arbitrary text with the host or other name.  The TXT record is used to define the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record which may be used to validate legitimate email sources from a domain.  See this Knowledge Base article for more information on SPF records.

Service Record

An SRV record defines the location of a hostname, port number, etc. of servers for a specific service.  In order to add an SRV record you will need the following information for each record you wish to create:

1. Service
2. Priority
3. Weight
4. Port
5. Target Server
6. TTL (Default is 3600, set in seconds)

For example:

(1) The Service _sip._tcp.domain.com (where domain.com is the domain that we host).
(2) The Priority value is for the intended target host. The lower the value, the more preferred.
(3) The Weight value is used when you have multiple SRV records for the same domain, a higher value here is proportionally better for records of the same priority.
(4) The Port value determines on which port the service will listen.
(5) The Target Server value is the CNAME of the host providing the service.
(6) The TTL value is a standard DNS Time To Live.

Reset DNS Records

Use this to reset your DNS settings to the default values that were present when your account was activated.  Resetting DNS will remove any DNS customization that you have made.  You may wish to make a note of your current DNS settings before using the reset tool.   A DNS reset is not reversible!